GENEVA, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) and football's world governing body, FIFA, on Friday agreed here to a four-year collaboration to promote healthy lifestyles through football globally.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and FIFA President Gianni Infantino signed a memorandum of understanding at WHO's headquarters in Geneva.

"WHO is excited to be working with FIFA. Half the world watched the 2018 World Cup," said Tedros.

"This means there's huge potential for us to team up to reach billions of people with information to help them live longer, healthier lives."

Infantino noted that "Football is a unique, universal language, and we want to use our platform and network to support health initiatives and promote healthy lifestyles all around the world."

The agreement covers collaboration in advocacy to promote a healthy lifestyle through football and policy alignment to ensure tobacco-free environments at FIFA events.

It aims to encourage national football federations to adopt tobacco-free policies, including at stadiums; and to enable the WHO to provide technical advice to FIFA on health matters. Enditem

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