President of Malta Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca presided over the arrival ceremony of the FIFA World Cup Trophy as part of the ‘FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour by Coca-Cola’.
Addressing a press conference, together with FIFA SOS Ambassador and former player of the French national team Christian Carembeu and COO of GSD Marketing Ltd Maria Micallef, President Coleiro Preca said that football is a great source of sports diplomacy, adding that sports diplomacy is a way forward to enhance all those passionate for sports—in this case, football—and that it also strengthens connections and friendships across diverse cultures.
President Coleiro Preca said that football is an international language that brings people together, encouraging leadership, teamwork, friendship and effective communication skills, adding that football has also the ability to bring people together in a most uncontentious manner to subtly deliver a much-needed message of inclusion, participation, peace and active citizenship—qualities which paved the way for the President’s Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society and the Malta Football Association to embark on a joint campaign throughout this football season to deliver a message of zero tolerance to gender-based violence.
“Football is an effective way to transcend linguistic and socio-cultural differences across borders. Football has the ability to build bridges and to pull down walls. Football can create the necessary safe spaces where people who may never have had the opportunity to meet one another can do so in an environment which is healthy and respectful”, the President concluded.
President Coleiro Preca thanked all those who were involved in making this event possible for all football fans in the Maltese Islands. The President also thanked Christian Karembeu for his commitment in his FIFA SOS ambassadorial role to help vulnerable children, stating that “it is comforting to know that FIFA is not simply a world football association, but that it has a wider scope in using football as a means of social inclusion.”