Recently, Kozo Palace, the president of the Japan Football Association (JFA), met with FIFA President Gianni Infantino. The two exchanged views on the development of football in Japan.
In recent years, the presence of the Japanese national team in world football has grown significantly. The senior national team defeated Germany and Spain in the group stage of the World Cup, advancing to the knockout rounds, while both the Olympic and women’s national teams reached the quarterfinals of the Paris Olympics. Against this backdrop, Infantino asked Palace about the current issues facing Japanese football and areas needing improvement.
Palace responded, “We need to increase the number of registered players. I discussed when and how we should do this. I told FIFA that we want to host the Women’s World Cup in 2031, and at the same time, increase the number of registered players. Of course, we have competitors, but Infantino expressed his willingness to support us in achieving this goal, which was the main topic of our conversation.”
“FIFA will certainly support us. Currently, many of our players are playing for clubs across Europe. Our budget is limited, but thanks to the FIFA Forward program, we are able to cover the costs associated with overseas transfers. This will bring us more excellent players, and we may be able to compete against strong teams in the World Cup and achieve good results. We have a bright future ahead of us.”
The 47-year-old Kozo Palace was officially elected as the president of the JFA in March this year. Upon taking office, he vigorously promoted the overseas transfer plans for Japanese players and set the goal of winning the World Cup by 2050.
JPFA President: We Hope to Host the 2031 Women’s World Cup; Infantino Expresses Willingness to Support Us. Author：Sports UEFA.Please indicate the source when reproduced：https://www.sportsuefa.com/football-world/24438.html
