2012: FIFA increases scope of development projects ( New initiatives, a special focus on women’s football, $67.25 million USD invested through the Financial Assistance Programme (FAP) and an additional $24.5 million USD used to fund Goal projects all over the world marked the year for FIFA’s development activities, according to figures released today, 18 December, by world football’s governing body. In 2012, member associations mainly invested FAP funds in women’s football (20 per cent of the average use), planning and administration (20 per cent), youth football (19 per cent) and men’s competitions (13 per cent), while a total of 49 Goal projects were implemented in Asia (12), Africa (11), North and Central America and the Caribbean (9), South America (4), Oceania (2) and Europe (11), the majority of which were for building or extending technical centres (19) as well as for setting up association headquarters (11) and football pitches (9). “With 209 member associations and as many different situations and contexts, one of our key challenges has been to provide tailor-made support in order to promote concrete progress in all six confederations," said FIFA’s Director of Member Associations and Development, Thierry Regenass. "The ongoing diversification of member associations’ strategic priorities means that we also need to diversify and adapt the scope of our development programmes. Institutional and human resources empowerment, as well as supporting the development of football structures and infrastructures, especially for the youth, play a key role within our long-term strategy.” The introduction of new schemes 2012 also marked the start of two special initiatives approved by the FIFA Executive Committee in 2011 to adapt FIFA’s development support to the changing landscape: the infrastructure and youth competitions programme, and the income generation scheme. While the former targets 75 less-privileged member associations and resulted in the implementation of 16 projects, the latter aims at fostering revenue creation in 50 member associations with high football development potential and underwent a pilot phase during the past 12 months. An additional milestone was reached with the introduction of the worldwide football stakeholder registration programme. The seven-year initiative aims at providing a general registration scheme for all national and international football stakeholders. Further investment in football development was made in 2012 through FIFA’s PERFORMANCE Programme, which saw 22 new member associations benefiting from a variety of projects. More than 70 countries are currently involved in PERFORMANCE, with the main focus on strengthening organisational skills (25 per cent), marketing and communication (14 per cent) and IT management (14 per cent). A total of $35 million has been allocated to PERFORMANCE programme activities for the 2011-2014 budget cycle. A year after the successful FIFA Women’s World Cup Germany 2011™, 30 projects were launched to support women’s leagues around the world and more than 8,000 girls joined FIFA’s 'Live Your Goals' festivals. Furthermore, 2030 coaches attended at least one of the 58 women’s football courses organised by world football’s governing body throughout the year. Overall, FIFA organised more than 500 education and capacity building projects during 2012, mainly in the areas of refereeing, coaching and institutional empowerment. A special focus was placed on grassroots football with 64 initiatives implemented in 59 nations, including special programmes in Mongolia, Burundi, Thailand, Greenland and Palestine. *Comprehensive information about FIFA’s initiatives is available on the FIFA Development Globe.