Gianni Infantino Supports Arkady Dvorkovich

President of FIFA sends video message.

Dear friends!

Coming back from an incredibly successful World Cup in Russia, I am very happy to say a couple of words also to you, to the world of chess. First of all, let me just say that our World Cup in Russia was the best ever! And it was the best ever thanks to the very close cooperation with the Russian local organizing committee chaired one of yours – Arkady – my good friend, who has run this show in Russia and has shown what it is to organize such a great event. 

Now, football and chess are, of course, two different things; but are they really so different? I think there are actually many points in common because very much like a chess player, a football coach or even a football player is preparing, of course, the team on the field and on the pitch, and the organizers are preparing their teams as well in order to organize the events. For this, I think, there are many synergies between FIFA and FIDE and maybe, why not, we could think about in the future cooperating in certain areas and seeing how we can help maybe some of the federations who need it most and create a contact between the world of chess and the world of football. With this in mind, thank you very much and all the best to all of you! Thank you!