FIFA President Gianni Infantino recently met Ms. Kanya Keomany, General Secretary of the Lao Football Federation (LFF), and a new FIFA council member to discuss football development progress and future opportunities around the sport in the country.
At the meeting that was held in Paris, the President of FIFA congratulated Ms. Kanya on being the first Laotian to be elected as a FIFA council member, according to FIFA’s website.
“It is great to see the strides that are being made to develop football in Laos, and FIFA is ready to support any way we can be in relation to the national training center, to the ongoing development of women’s football, or any other projects that can help elevate Lao football,” said Mr. Gianni.
At the event, Ms. Kanya provided updates on the expansion of the LFF National Training Centre which is being built with the assistance of the FIFA Forward program, valued at around USD 750,000.
“This expansion is the continued project after we built the two pitches for our training center. This training center is being used for our national teams, and also for the local clubs that do not have the pitches to train,” Ms. Kanya said in an interview with FIFA.
The president of FIFA and Ms. Kanya also discussed plans for expanding the women’s games across Laos with additional funds from the FIFA Forward program.
She expressed her hope that the fund will help Laos host more competitions after the pandemic, and kickstart the women’s football league this year that will be launched for the first time in Laos.
“For women’s football we’ve been doing good in terms of national level, but we’ve never had the league before to produce the new players to continue the development – so this year we are finally having it,” said Ms. Kanya.
With the FIFA Women’s World Cup around the corner, the Lao Football Federation feels that it is the perfect time to usher in an all-new women’s league.
“We planned to have that before COVID, but because of that everything stopped. This year, with the [FIFA Women’s] World Cup, [it] is the perfect time to launch this,” adds Ms. Kanya.
