Your Excellency Dr Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari,
Your Excellency Mr Hassan Al Thawadi,
My colleague and brother, Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari,
And also my other brother, Didier Drogba,
Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening, and thank you for joining us for this very special occasion.
First of all, I would like to welcome Your Excellency Dr Hanan Al Kuwari and Your Excellency Mr Al Thawadi to WHO.
We very much appreciate Qatar’s support for WHO’s mission to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable, as a core contributor to our programme budget for 2020 and 2021.
Qatar’s flexible core voluntary contributions are critical to our work around the world.
We also very much appreciate the State of Qatar’s support for WHO’s work in Afghanistan, through the donation of two flights to deliver medicines and supplies, enabling WHO to meet the health needs of almost 1.5 million people.
I also thank Minister Hanan, who played a vital role in supporting Dr Al-Mandhari and myself to visit Afghanistan last month, to assess how we can best support the country’s very fragile health system at this precarious time.
I’m also very grateful to Gianni and our friends at FIFA for their partnership over the past two years.
Together we have engaged in a range of joint initiatives to promote physical activity and mental health, and to advocate for public health measures and equitable access to vaccines and other tools to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
So we are very pleased to further that relationship today through this high-level statement of collaboration between Qatar, FIFA and WHO.
Our shared objective is to create a healthy and safe World Cup in Qatar next year, but also to create a legacy, by showing how major sporting events can be used to promote health and well-being.
Events like the World Cup and the Olympic Games are perfect partners for promoting health and solidarity.
Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to travel to Tokyo for the opening of the Olympic Games, and to speak at the International Olympic Committee.
One of the standout moments of the games was when the two high-jumpers from Qatar and Italy agreed to share the gold medal.
This is a perfect illustration of excellence, friendship and respect, but also of the kind of solidarity we need to overcome the pandemic.
Finally, no one at this table understands better what it means to play at a World Cup than Didier Drogba.
Didier had the honour of captaining Côte d’Ivoire at three World Cups, and scored his country’s first ever goal at a World Cup finals. Twice named African Footballer of the Year, more than 100 goals for country, almost 500 goals for 9 different clubs, including more than 200 at Chelsea, where he remains a hero – Didier is footballing royalty.
Most recently, Didier scored a hat-trick in UNICEF’s “Match of Heroes” in Marseille last week.
His efforts off the pitch are equally impressive, including his role in promoting peace in his home country, and using his name, his profile and his own resources to promote health and fight poverty.
I am therefore delighted to welcome Didier Drogba as a WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Sport and Health.
Didier, it’s an honour to have you on our team, and we look forward to working with you – and with Qatar and FIFA – to win the greatest prize of all, which is a healthier, safer, fairer future for all people. And I know you will continue to score more goals as our team member.
Thank you very much. Merci beaucoup.