The leading health organisation and sports body have been collaborating since 2019 to promote health through football, as part of a four-year memorandum signed between the two parties.

The world’s biggest sports and health bodies have united to raise awareness about the coronavirus pandemic under #ACTogether, an initiative by FIFA and the World Health Organization [WHO] to promote fair and equal access to the COVID-19 vaccines.

“We all have to play our part in the battle against the coronavirus. We are also calling on the international community to #ACTogether to ensure a level playing field in relation to access to vaccines, treatments and diagnostic tests across the globe,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino said during a video conference prior to the kick-off of the Club World Cup in Doha.

According to FIFA, the partnership also aims to “encourage” people to continue to adhere to the global safety measures in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. The campaign, coinciding with the Club World Cup in Qatar on February 4th, involves football stars who will be promoting the safety tools used to fight the pandemic through television and in-stadium messaging.

“The rules of the COVID-19 challenge are simple: all people at risk from the coronavirus in all countries must have equitable access to life-saving vaccines, treatments and diagnostics…our goal now is to ensure equitable access and continued refinement of these tools,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.

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The awareness videos will also feature players and head coaches from the competing teams at the FIFA Club World Cup Qatar 2020, all of which will be displayed with the support of global broadcasters.

The latest collaboration comes as part of a four-year memorandum signed between WHO and FIFA in 2019 “to promote healthy lifestyles through football globally”.

The two organisations have also previously launched the “Pass the message to kick out coronavirus” campaign in March last year, an April initiative under the title #BeActive, and #SafeHome in May – all of which which promoted the importance of maintaining safety and healthy measures to help curb coronavirus infections.

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