FIFA President Gianni Infantino and His Excellency Santiago Peña, President of the Republic of Paraguay, met at FIFA’s Paris office, where they held constructive discussions on a range of topics. Also present at the meeting in the French capital, where the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games is taking place this Friday, was Robert Harrison, president of the Paraguayan Football Association (APF).

During the discussion, the leaders reviewed some of the South American country’s recent footballing accomplishments, including the inauguration last April of the CARDIF (Centro de Alto Rendimiento de las Divisiones Formativas) in the city of Luque, a ceremony attended by Gianni Infantino.

Paraguay's new high-performance centre, part-funded through the FIFA Forward programme, provides world-class facilities for young talent from Paraguay's top clubs.

"A few months ago, I was in their wonderful country to attend the inauguration of the CARDIF (Centro de Alto Rendimiento de las Divisiones Formativas) project, part-funded by the FIFA Forward programme, and saw for myself the world-class facilities it will provide to talented youngsters and professional players," said Gianni Infantino.

The centre should play an important role in Paraguay's quest to qualify for the FIFA World Cup 26™, the biggest edition in history, and in which CONMEBOL will have more qualifying places than ever before. The national team have not been to a World Cup since the 2010 edition in South Africa, where they reached the quarter-finals in what was their best result to date.

The FIFA President wished Paraguay luck at the Men's Olympic Football Tournament, which they began on Wednesday. The Paraguay U-23 team qualified for Paris 2024 by winning CONMEBOL’s Pre-Olympic Tournament played in February, beating teams such as Argentina and Brazil, with the latter failing to qualify for Paris.

Gianni Infantino also spoke with Santiago Peña and Robert Harrison about the FIFA World Cup 2030™, an edition that will mark the centenary of the World Cup in South America. This celebration is set to take place in Uruguay, where the first FIFA World Cup was held in 1930, and see three fixtures shared between Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay. Both these decisions are subject to the successful completion of FIFA’s bidding process and the approval of the FIFA Congress in 2024.

"We also discussed the FIFA World Cup 2030, a special edition which will see a unique celebration of the centenary of the FIFA World Cup in South America. I further thanked both for their commitment to football, which is taking our beautiful game forward in Paraguay," concluded the FIFA President.