About 10 acres of land in Seamoon, St Andrew are now under excavation and grading for the development of a major sporting facility.

The Grenada Football Association (GFA), through FIFA Goal Project, is constructing a football centre which will also include football pitches and dormitories.

A number of reasons were advanced for the selection of the site. Among them are the availability of land and the wealth of raw talent in the parish of St Andrew.

FIFA is providing more than one million Eastern Caribbean dollars for the project with government providing land and machinery.

The project which was approved last March started only a few weeks ago after a delay in the acquisition of the land, a prerequisite for the final approval of the funds by FIFA.

Grenada's project was among 30 approved during a meeting by the FIFA Goal Bureau, under the chairmanship of Mohamed Bin Hammam (Qatar), FIFA Executive Committee member and Chairman of the FIFA Technical Committee, convened in Zurich for an ordinary meeting on 4 March 2002. The Bureau approved in total 30 new projects in the Goal Programme:

• Asia (AFC): 8
  Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Syria, Tajikistan.
• Africa (CAF): 11
  Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Namibia, Niger, Seychelles, Uganda, Zimbabwe.
• Central and North America and Caribbean (CONCACAF): 6
  Aruba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Granada, Guyana, Netherlands Antilles.
• Oceania (OFC): 1
  Tonga.
• Europe (UEFA): 4
  Belarus, Lithuania, Malta, Russia.

The construction involved in all of the projects mentioned above - headquarters, technical centres or football fields - are all due to commence in the coming weeks and months.

The Goal Programme, initiated by FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter, is funded with a budget of CHF 100 million for the period of 1999 - 2002. All in all, more than 100 national associations will have benefited from Goal by the end of 2002 and the initial target will thus have been accomplished.

[FOOTBALL]