Professional football against hunger campaign.

19 March 2009, Rome – 963 million human beings are currently suffering from hunger worldwide. This dramatic trend must be reversed.

The Association of European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL) and its 29 members and associate Members have joined forces with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in battling starvation.

The weekend of 20-22 March 2009, for the “Match Day against Hunger”, hundreds of professional football matches across Europe will be dedicated to raising awareness about this growing problem. Several initiatives, including “Professional Football Against Hunger” banners, t-shirts worn by the players entering the field and screenings of videos about FAO TeleFood projects will see the stadiums of the European Professional Football Leagues at the centre of this awareness campaign.

The FAO-EPFL partnership serves “to sensitize public opinion about the devastating problem of hunger that still affects as many as 963 million people,” says FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf.

“We are very proud of our League's ability to generate economic development, employment and progress in many areas. That's why the EPFL and member leagues have joined FAO at the forefront of the fight against hunger. United, we can make a difference,” adds Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros, Chief Executive Officer of the EPFL.

The events on the football field will be backed up by a donation campaign to support FAO’s TeleFood projects. This grassroots approach to alleviating hunger will finance micro-projects designed to provide immediate and lasting solutions to poor families and communities and enable them to produce their own food. To date FAO has developed more than 2 700 TeleFood projects in 130 countries.

Team supporters are invited to participate and to make donations through SMS and online fundraising for FAO’s TeleFood projects.

European football greats Raúl Gonzalez, Paolo Rossi, Hirsto Stoichkov, Hansi Müller and Fernando Couto are among the many football stars who will be supporting or playing this weekend’s in leagues matches dedicated to raising awareness of the shocking number of 963 million of hunger victims worldwide.