FIFA President Gianni Infantino has said that football was “a magic tool for education” when he addressed a panel at the World Leaders Summit on Children’s Rights at the Vatican which highlighted the importance of access to education, the need to improve literacy rates and the role that education can play in breaking the cycle of poverty.

Participating in the panel “The Child’s Right to Education”, Mr Infantino highlighted FIFA Football for Schools, which has been implemented in 129 of FIFA’s 211 Member Associations across all six continents, in partnership with local government authorities and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to help teach children life skills through fun football sessions.

For the Summit, the Vatican invited a range of global leaders to discuss children's rights under the theme “Love Them and Protect Them". Panellists from all over the world discussed children’s protection from violence and exploitation, access to resources, access to education and health, and rights to a family.

Queen Rania of Jordan, the Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani and former President of Indonesia Megawati Sukarnoputri were among the speakers. The summit was opened by Pope Francis who urged world leaders to listen to children suffering from war, poverty and migration.

“I was honoured to speak at the World Leaders Summit on Children’s Rights in the Vatican, underlining football's power to be a school of life and influence positive change,” Mr Infantino said afterwards. “Football is a magic tool that unites the world and brings smiles to children. It can be leveraged to teach important lessons and values.

“Taking the responsibility of educating and safeguarding children very seriously, FIFA partners with various United Nations agencies, and via legacy initiatives of tournaments like the FIFA World Cup, FIFA Women's World Cup and our global youth tournaments, we continue to positively impact lives off the field,” he added.

“I thank all my fellow panellists and all dignitaries present, including representatives from all religions, strongly highlighting how all children are equal and for children, we are all a team, playing to win this match of education, together! As Pope Francis said, every child's future should be our central focus; we must love them and protect them.”

During the panel, Mr Infantino, who was greeted by Pope Francis, spoke of the joy that a football can bring. Showing the Official Match Ball of the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup™ to the assembled audience, he said: “If you look at your faces when I took out this ball, well, there is a smile (on) your face. And the same smile is on the face of every child all over the world, (to) whom you give such a ball.”

The FIFA President continued: “Football is also a school of life. Children, when they play football, when they are very small, they start learning that you cannot kick somebody because it's a foul; that, actually, you need to play as a team, and you can win only if you play as a team. You learn as well to lose and to stand up after a defeat to play the next game, which, of course, you want to win. So, football gives many, many lessons to children in playing.

“(This) is also one of the greatest challenges of today's society (and) we need to capture (children’s) attention, because through education…we can teach them many important things for their life. So, today, here, FIFA and myself, we would like to offer you all a tool - a very powerful tool, based on this magic object here. The tool for education – it's football.”

Mr Infantino explained that FIFA Football for Schools was precisely about using football as that hook to attract children’s attention. “You go to a classroom, you put the ball on the desk of the teacher, you say to the children, ‘Today, we'll speak about football’, and everyone listens. And then you speak about women's empowerment or about discrimination, or about violence, or about nutrition, or about health – you can speak about any topic because everything is related to what interests children.

“So, with this ball, with this magic tool to help in education together with UNESCO and other UN agencies, we have prepared a whole educational programme for children from the age of five to the age of fifteen.”

The FIFA President shared the panel with Bishop Paul Tighe, Secretary of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, Culture Section; Miguel Benasayag, Philosopher and psychoanalyst; Marco Impagliazzo, President of La Comunità di Sant’Egidio; Rabbi David Rosen, Special Advisor to the Abrahamic Family House; Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence, United Arab Emirates; Liliana Segre, a Holocaust survivor who is Senator for Life of Italian Republic; and Megawati Sukarnopoutri, Member of Zayed Award for Human Fraternity and former President of Indonesia.