However they may be involved in the game, what these children all have in common is the right to enjoy football in a safe environment and a culture of respect and understanding.

With this firmly in mind, today FIFA launched a new dedicated programme and toolkit – FIFA Guardians™ – designed to enhance child safeguarding standards within football.

Fourteen players will venture to Europe on June 29, with the Pararoos’ first stop being Oberhaching near Munich where the team will play two international friendlies against Germany’s National CP (Cerebral Palsy) football team.

While in Bavaria, Lammert’s squad will set up shop at Sportschule Oberhaching, a modern college of physical education that was built in 1994 and features a range of elite outdoor and indoor facilities.

MFF President and AFC Vice President Ganbaatar Amgalanbaatar made the announcement at their Grassroots Football Day and thanked AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa for his support.

The idea to build a football pitch was mooted 12 months ago after tragedy struck School No. 79 when an 11-year-old male student tragically died when a goal post fell on him.

The AFC will manage the partnership through the AFC Dream Asia Foundation which was launched in March 2017 and has delivered projects across the Continent in the last two years.

Generation Amazing is the human and social legacy programme initiated during Qatar’s successful bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in 2010, which aims to use the power of sport to positively impact lives and create sustainable social development in communities.

Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, the AFC President, said: “The AFC puts football for social development at the heart of all our work and since the launch of the AFC Dream Asia Foundation, we are proud to have conducted 33 projects in 21 AFC Member Associations. We are looking forward to working with the Generation Amazing to deliver even more projects for the benefit of young people on our Continent.”

The value-in-kind partnership will see both sides engaging in joint football for development initiatives in countries including Lebanon and the Philippines, where the AFC has already concluded successful projects.

A total of 216 players participated in the competition for young men and women with hearing disabilities in Cambodia, using funding received by ISF following their AFC Dream Asia Award as the NGO of the Year.

The Dream Asia recognition acknowledged ISF’s initiatives in Cambodia where they provide the widest-reaching grassroots football programme in the country. The project is in line with the AFC Dream Asia Foundation’s key pillars of social inclusion and programmes for youths.

The ongoing initiatives started on November 30, last year and will end in September 2019 and have also included working with the JAAGO Foundation to provide football training for street children in Dhaka which ran from November 30 to December 3.

Then the initiative for Rohingya refugees started on December 4 and will run in the coastal town of Cox’s Bazar, where there are almost 800,000 refugees, will now run until December 10.

The friendly is part of the character education carried out under Phase 1 of the AFC-UNHCR Programme, that also comprises competitions, with the aim offering learning experience for the children to play with an external team in a match officiated by professional referees.

The children’s football skills and behaviour were observed throughout the match, to identify if the children had absorbed the knowledge and lessons taught in the programme. 

Furthermore, it also served as an opportunity for the children to visit the city.