PETALING JAYA — Malaysia is among the first Fifa member associations to launch a mini-pitch under the Fifa Arena project, which aims to create over 1,000 new small-sized playing surfaces for the benefit of children worldwide.

The Sri Kelana Primary School here was picked as the first school in the country to be part of the initiative pledged by Fifa president Gianni Infantino at the Sustainable Sports Summit in Paris in July last year.

Infantino, who inaugurated the project here today, said he believes it will have a domino effect that can attract other entities to build similar projects nationwide.

“This should just be an example of something we can do for children, and when people see it, they will want to have Fifa Arenas all over the country.

“We are here to help put this in place, to prepare a joint project with the government, FAM (Football Association of Malaysia) and Fifa to make many, many more of these fields in Malaysia,” he told a press conference here today.

Also present were Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh and FAM honorary president Tan Sri Hamidin Mohd Amin.