Soccer stars urge the public to take part in UN anti-poverty campaign

The soccer stars and Goodwill Ambassadors for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Didier Drogba and Zinedine Zidane, today launched a television announcement exhorting the world to make a concerted effort to help millions of people free themselves from poverty.

“There can be no spectators in the fight against poverty,” said Mr. Drogba, the national captain of Côte d’Ivoire and a striker for the English Premier League club Chelsea.

“We all need to be on the pitch to improve the lives of millions of poor people in this world,” he added during the launch of the public service announcement that will be broadcast during the World Cup now under way in South Africa.

The multilingual TV spot aims to bolster efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight internationally-agreed targets which aim to reduce poverty, hunger, maternal and child deaths, disease, inadequate shelter and gender inequality by 2015.

“The World Cup brings people around the globe together to support their national teams, and we need the same kind of passion to end poverty and hunger,” said Mr. Zidane, a former French national captain.

“The 2015 target for the Millennium Development Goals is a few years away, so the time to make a difference is now,” he added.

Mr. Zidane and Mr. Drogba’s video can be viewed on UNDP’s new football website, www.kickoutpoverty.org, which gives people the opportunity to join the fight against poverty.