PALESTINE, ARMENIA, TURKEY AND WOMEN’S GAME HONORED
Soccer America Daily
ction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=305 37
Jan 13 2009
[FIFA AWARDS] The FIFA World Player Gala 2008 that unveiled last
year’s top players also included the awarding of the inaugural
Development Award, the Fair Play Award and the Presidential Award,
which U.S. national team forward Heather O’Reilly accepted on behalf
of the "women’s game."
"We are delighted with the progress which has been made so far in
the women’s game," said FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter.
O’Reilly, 24, has won two Olympic gold medals (2004, 2006), a bronze
medal at the 2007 Women’s World Cup, and she lifted the U-20 Women’s
World Cup title in 2002.
Palestine won the inaugural Development Award, "in recognition
of the difficult task that it had accomplished in keeping soccer
alive and also for its work with FIFA in building the first
international-standard stadium in the West Bank, as well as organizing
the now famous match between Palestine and Jordan in October 2008,"
said Blatter.
The FIFA Fair Play Award for 2008 went to the federations of Armenia
and Turkey for their part in encouraging dialogue between two countries
that otherwise do not have any form of diplomatic relationship.
On Sept. 6, 2008, the President of Turkey, Abdula Gul, spent eight
hours in Yerevan, on the invitation of Armenian President Serzh
Sargsian, in order to attend the two countries’ qualifying game for the
2010 FIFA World Cup. According to FIFA, "As a result, sport, and more
specifically soccer, has helped alleviate a situation where traditional
diplomacy had failed since 1991, the year Armenia gained independence."
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country was holding the EU
Presidency at the time, dubbed the meeting a "historic and brave
initiative."