Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:22 pm on 27 September 2022.
Well, there are many burdens in ministerial life, but I'll take one for the team, literally. Look, on the creative legacy, I actually think, with the programme we've announced, within that creative legacy, not just the projects we haven't been able to fund, but lots of organisations and groups, will be running their own activity anyway. We haven't had any real conversation about fan zones, partly because the tournament's in November and it'll probably be dark by the time the games are actually on here, as opposed to 2016, where we had a fantastic summer for each of the games that we played. But, actually, there'll be lots of activity, not just in venues that already exist and that will want to show the game and get people to celebrate, but in the run-up to it as well.
I remember—I still remember—being young and seeing other men's football world cups and there not being a Wales team there, but, actually, world cup fever is very hard to avoid when it comes to the football world cup. It is such a giant juggernaut of a game, and it's even bigger now than it was when I was genuinely young, as opposed to youthful for a politician. And I think that, within our country, given it's been 64 years, over the next few weeks, it'll be very hard to avoid the world cup, and I think lots of people will be looking to take part in different activities. And what we're doing within this programme is making it easy for a lot of people to get involved. Like I said, every primary school will be engaged in at least one of the projects.
But, more than that, I think you'll see lots of different clubs and organisations looking to engage their own supporter base, and lots of digital content as well for what's being done in some of the things that we've supported. And within that, you will see a very strong Welsh language narrative and use of what we're doing not just in Wales but, indeed, some of the things we're doing abroad as well. So, in North America—and one of the events we're looking to do there, it's with S4C—there'll be plenty of Welsh language content in what we're doing in promoting the language there. And, indeed, it's been one of the reasons why I think that the two new owners of Wrexham have been such a success: (a) because they've got a sense of humour—they've obviously come with a name that makes other people interested, but I think they've been very positive and respectful in promoting the Welsh language, and they've done things in a way that I think elected Members probably couldn't do. They've used that space really creatively, and I think that gives us a good base to have an even greater explanation and positive open-door policy into looking at the two languages of our country, not just the one of them. So, I think that's a really big opportunity, and hopefully you'll see that not just in the bids, but in what actually happens as well.
When it comes to additional resource, we'll have additional people on the ground, both during the tournament and in some of the run-up, in the region, but also in the US, to assist in some of the marketing and the engagement there as well. But it isn't just about the numbers of people, it's what they're able to do, and, again, some of the digital content we'll be able to use and working with partner organisations. If we simply wanted to do this ourselves, we wouldn't have the right number of people or, indeed, the right links that exist.
So, Wales's international diaspora and organisations that already exist in Dubai and Qatar will be really important for us in looking to grow and expand our links and exposure there, and I think that's also relevant to the engagement with UK-branded events. That's partly because I had the opportunity to go to Dubai during the World Expo, and, during that time, your concerns about the union jack being seen as interchangeable, say, with the George cross, actually, when we had Wales Day in the UK pavilion, it really was a proper Wales takeover, and you could not get anywhere near the UK pavilion without recognising that we were there and the promotion of Wales not just in the food and drink, but in what took place outside as well as inside as well.
So, I do think that our embassy staff in different parts of the world recognise their responsibility to all countries within the UK. We've had already really good engagement with the embassy with both the First Minister and myself in looking at making sure that what they do genuinely supports all nations. We're talking with the UK Government about UK Day and the 'GREAT' branded activity to be clear that it won't just be the union jack that's there; it'll be our flag alongside it as well, in particular on the things that we are doing, and it will properly reflect the fact that there are two nations from the UK who have qualified for this world cup. And, when it comes to future world cups, of course, there'll be the women's world cup, which I hope will be the next world cup that we get to discuss and talk about our direct participation in.
When it comes to LGBTQ+ fans, that is part of our challenge, in how we give people the certainty and the confidence that their issues and concerns won't be avoided. That's why I talk about being positive about our values and who we are as Wales today and who we want to be in the future, and for fans to go there and to be who they are and to be safe and to be looked after. The Qatari supreme committee who are organising the tournament are quite sensitive to this, in that they don't want anyone to not feel welcome. And it's not just Wales that are talking about this—virtually every European football association has talked about this proactively, because of the great changes taking place across Europe. Actually, if this tournament had taken place 50 years ago, we wouldn't have been talking about this, because, actually, across Europe, there was a very different attitude. And actually, 50 years ago—. Well, certainly when Wales qualified for the last tournament, it wasn't legal in this country to be gay and in a relationship. So, we recognise that we've made progress in the last half century, and some of this is about making sure that those gains aren't put to one side or avoided for the sake of sport, but are part of our engagement. The First Minister will be making a statement on our engagement with different parts of the world, as I've referenced in my own statement, to set out our approach to how we'll engage with different countries in the world without sacrificing our own values.
Then, on the point the FAW have made, it's a brave, seductive and audacious bid to get £343 million of capital out of the finance Minister when, actually, we do know that we had a practical and, in fact, a cash cut in our capital budget. So, there's a lot of pressure. So, the money that we've already put in is money that is a priority in really difficult times. Our challenge will be how and where we can get capital and how we use that to improve facilities, and, crucially, in the way we look at sporting facilities, how we can get multi-use for different sports. That's already taking place between a range of organisations, but there will certainly be much more to do in improving grass-roots and community facilities in this and many other activities after the tournament.