In order to avert the impending food crisis in the Sahel region of
Africa, a campaign, "Professional Football Against Hunger" hits
hundreds of European football stadium with the main message that action is
needed to avert a humanitarian disaster in the region as soon as possible.
Professional Football Against Hunger as revealed to NaijaAgroNet in a press statement made available by the UN's Food and
Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is being promoted by the Association of European
Professional Football Leagues (EPFL), the European Commission and FAO.
NaijaAgroNet gathered that the campaign, Match Day Against Hunger was launched
in 2008, which its third edition this year and the biggest-ever match started
on March 30 to spread the call for urgent action.
Commenting on the issue, The European Commissioner for
International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, Kristalina
Georgieva affirmed that football is the perfect vehicle for highlighting the
plight of the people in the Sahel region.
"To respond properly to this emergency, governments, donors
and aid agencies need to be united. Together, we can save lives," said
Kristalina Georgieva.
"At the same time, we need to build resilience in local
communities to stop jumping from crisis to crisis, and to prevent droughts from
leading inevitably to famine," said José Graziano da Silva,
Director-General of FAO. "We must act now to help people help
themselves."
FAO Goodwill Ambassador and Spanish football star Raúl González
Blanco said, "We need public support for food crises like this one. No one
knows like footballers how crucial it is to have the stadium on your side to
win the match."
"We are all diminished when
somebody, in any part of the globe, dies from hunger," said Roberto
Carlos, a Brazilian
star player.
Spanish international and campaign's
ambassador from the Spanish professional football league, Roberto
Soldado also
said, "Together we can prevent this crisis from turning into a full scale
catastrophe."
NaijaAgroNet
further gathered that other football ambassadors of the campaign include Felix Magath,
a former footballer and active coach in the German Bundesliga; Herbert
Prohaska, appointed by the Österreichische Fußball Bundesliga -
Austria; Steffen
Freund, DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga GmbH, Germany; Vidar Riseth,
Norsk Toppfotball, Norway; Jerzy Dudek, Polish Professional Football League
and Alexey
Medvedev, Football
National League of the Russian Federation.
Yinka Awosanya/LS
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