Rama considers this a moment of pride for Albania.

In his statement, Infantino said that all European and American countries, North American countries, closed their doors, apologizing that they could not.

“We were able to rescue more than 160 girls and women, most of them from Afghanistan to Qatar. We did so because we were promised by many countries in our Western world, before we took them out, that they would of course welcome them. 160 and not 1600 or 16000. My feeling is that we were promised because they believed that we would not be able to get them out of the country. But, once we got them out of the country, thanks to the help of Qatar, we brought them to Doha and they stayed in one of the complexes that were built for the World Cup. All European countries and all American countries closed their doors saying sorry, we can’t, we can’t. The only country that said that we will bring them here because we know what it is to suffer and run away from your country was Albania. And my friend Edi Rama said that they are welcome here in Albania, where they can build a future. So, Albania opened its doors. Of all the countries, only Albania opened its doors to the Afghan refugees, who had to run away because they were playing football in Afghanistan,” said Infantino./a.jor/p.s./

The FIFA leadership has been working closely with Qatar on the evacuation effort since August, with Albania having joined the collaboration more recently. FIFA now calls on all countries across the world to support this humanitarian cause by offering permanent settlement to these women and families to enable them to begin to rebuild their lives.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino said: “We would like to express our sincere thanks to both the Amir of Qatar, His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, for helping us with this humanitarian mission and for all their assistance in safely relocating these members of the football community in such challenging circumstances.

“I am also calling on all of our friends in governments and in the football community across the world to help us in obtaining residence permits and visas for the evacuees so that they can start a new life in safe and secure circumstances.”

FIFA will continue to work resolutely on the safe evacuation of further members of the sporting family.