The Goal project was initiated by FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter and ratified at the FIFA Extraordinary Congress in Los Angeles on July 9, 1999.

After a long history of development work at FIFA, the launch of the Goal project heralded a new era, coinciding with the new millennium. Goal offers tailor-made programs that are cut out to suit the individual country's needs and then implemented by FIFA experts in close cooperation with the national associations. Of course, not all of the 204 member national associations will automatically benefit from Goal. The countries will be selected by the Goal Bureau that is composed of six members of FIFA's Technical Committee representing the confederations.

• Infrastructure
  Construction and renovation of football pitches, training and tuition centres, office premises, etc.

• Administration
  Set-up structure of national and regional associations, staff, etc.

• Education
  Administration, coaching, sports medicine, refereeing, etc.

• Youth football
  Training of youth coaches, talent promotion, football schools, etc.

• Other areas based on the needs of the national association

ORGANIZATION
Development Offices, managed by highly qualified FIFA experts (hereafter: Development Officers), have been set up all around the world to strengthen cooperation with the associations. Each Development Office is entrusted with the development of approximately 15 to 20 national associations. The geographical proximity of the Development Offices enables the needs of the associations to be analysed better and the projects to be supervised and monitored more easily.

PROCESS
As Goal features unprecedented flexibility in the implementation of development programmes, eleven pilot projects have been conducted enabling all of the parties to gain valuable experience and to help design a clear, transparent and structured Goal process for all benefiting national associations.