World champion footballers and UN Goodwill Ambassadors Ronaldo and Zindine Zidane Tuesday announced that the 8th Annual Match Against Poverty will raise funds for the nearly 25 million people affected by the Pakistan floods and Haiti earthquake.
The two men, who use their celebrity status to promote the anti-poverty work of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), will mobilise their all-star team to challenge Greek-side Olympiacos in a friendly game on December 15, 2010. The match, which will be played at Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus, Greece, is part of the global campaign to achieve the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the targets to slash poverty, hunger, disease and other social ills, all by 2015.
"With five years left to accomplish the set of eight goals," said Zidane, "I hope this 8th Annual Match Against Poverty will help communicate a sense of urgency that we all need to join the team to end poverty now." UNDP will receive half of the match's proceeds, which will go to ongoing relief efforts in Haiti and Pakistan.
"Our goal with this 8th Match Against Poverty is to support the people and Governments of Pakistan and Haiti to recover from the devastating natural disasters which affected them so terribly in 2010," said UNDP Administrator Helen Clark, expressing gratitude to Zidane and Ronaldo for raising awareness for those who are often too quickly forgotten.