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Football match for disaster affected people
India Blooms News Service
New York Dec 16 (IBNS): The plight of those affected by the natural disasters which struck Haiti and Pakistan this year was the focus of a special UN football match played by some of the world’s top footballers and watched by a live crowd of 33,000 in Athens on Tuesday night.
Organized by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and football stars, Ronaldo and Zinédine Zidane, both UNDP goodwill ambassadors, the Match Against Poverty series has the overall aim of reminding people about their responsibility for ensuring the achievement of the UN’s anti-poverty Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
For this year’s match – hosted by Greek football team Olympiacos at its Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus and broadcast live in more than 30 countries – half of the funds raised will be used to help the more than 20 million people in Pakistan and Haiti affected by the floods and earthquake which devastated those countries in January and July, respectively.
“It is important that we reach out in solidarity with those affected by extreme poverty,” Zidane told a pre-match news conference. “We cannot allow the people of Haiti and Pakistan to suffer in silence. Through this match we hope to let the world know we’re in this together.”
“It really inspires me to see that despite the economic crisis in Greece the people of this great country still come together in solidarity with the poor of the world,” Ronaldo added. “I’m really impressed that the stadium is sold out tonight.”
The UNDP Director of Communications, Stéphane Dujarric, stressed that sports can be a powerful tool for bringing a positive impact to millions of people. “Through sport we can bring people together to focus on a common goal – a world without poverty where everyone on the planet can live with dignity,” he said.
The owner of Olympiacos, Evangelos Marinakis, said his team will donate its share of the money raised to a group that helps children with special needs, as well as to homeless and disadvantaged communities in Piraeus.
The Tuesday night match ended with a 2-2 draw. It was the eighth so far in the Match Against Poverty series, with the seventh match having taken place in January in Lisbon, hosted by Portuguese team Benfica.
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