Chad has inaugurated its first FIFA Arena mini-pitch, taking a significant step towards expanding grassroots football infrastructure and giving thousands of children access to a dedicated sporting facility.
The facility, installed at School 15 in Koumra, in southern Chad, is the country’s first project under FIFA’s global Arena initiative.
It is expected to benefit about 5,000 children, while Chadian authorities intend to expand the programme by establishing a FIFA Arena across each of the country’s 23 regions.
The development provides an example of a different side of African football investment — one focused not on major stadiums or elite competitions, but on providing basic infrastructure where children can regularly play the sport.
FIFA Targets 1,000 Mini-Pitches
FIFA’s Arena programme aims to establish 1,000 mini-pitches worldwide by 2031, particularly in communities where children have limited access to safe football facilities.
The project was formally launched at the 75th FIFA Congress in Asunción, Paraguay, in May 2025.
With the Koumra facility, Chad joins a growing number of African countries participating in the initiative. Other beneficiaries include Algeria, Comoros, Djibouti, The Gambia, Liberia, Morocco, Niger and Rwanda.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino welcomed the inauguration, describing the facility as part of efforts to ensure more children have opportunities to participate in football.
Chad had already launched FIFA’s Football for Schools programme in 2023, meaning the Arena project provides additional physical infrastructure to support grassroots participation.
Chad Plans 23 Facilities
The bigger ambition is to take the programme beyond Koumra.
Chadian authorities plan to establish 23 FIFA Arenas, effectively extending the initiative across the country’s regions.
A second facility is expected to be inaugurated in the coming months.
For Chad, where football development has historically faced infrastructure and resource constraints, increasing the number of accessible pitches could help broaden the base from which future players are identified.
Youth development requires more than discovering talented footballers after they have already emerged.
It depends on providing children with regular access to coaching, organised competitions and suitable places to play.
That is why smaller community facilities can potentially have an impact that extends beyond their physical size.
Building African Football From the Bottom
Chad’s Minister of Youth and Sports, Naïr Abakar, said the country possesses football talent but needs the infrastructure necessary for young players to express and develop that ability.
Chadian Football Federation President Tahir Oloy Hassan similarly linked the project to efforts to rebuild the country’s football system from grassroots level.
The challenge will be ensuring the facilities remain properly maintained and connected to structured youth-development programmes.
Building pitches alone does not guarantee the emergence of elite players.
Coaching, competitions, talent identification, education and pathways into organised clubs remain essential parts of the development system.
Nevertheless, the Koumra project gives thousands of young people something fundamental: a dedicated place to play.
If Chad follows through on its plan to establish facilities across all 23 regions, the programme could substantially increase access to organised football and create a wider foundation for the country’s long-term football development.
For African football more broadly, projects of this kind underline an increasingly important principle: producing the continent’s next generation of players depends not only on investment at the professional level, but on building the infrastructure that allows talent to develop long before players reach professional academies or national teams.
