The appointment of Fatma Samoura as secretary general of FIFA will create more opportunities for social responsibility football projects, according to the co-founder of Street Child United.

During a Soccerex panel on football’s global responsibility, John Wroe said that having an “African woman committed to change and reform” was “enormously encouraging”, particularly in terms of using the sport for social good.

Wroe’s organisation creates campaigns around international sporting events, such as the World Cup, where street children with no identities take part in their own tournament in the host city in a bid to raise awareness of a worldwide issue.

He said that while Street Child had “never had a relationship with FIFA” before the appointment of the former United Nations veteran made him “hopeful for the future”.

Yesterday (26 September), parts of Samoura’s own Soccerex address – her first since being appointed – touched on using grassroots football for social good and combating discrimination.

Wroe also told delegates about his plans for a third Street Child World Cup being held in Moscow in 2018 to coincide with the FIFA World Cup. It will be the third such event following previous editions in South Africa in 2010 and Brazil two years ago.

The last Street Child World Cup had a “global audience of 200m people”, with the BBC, Al Jazeera, The Guardian and CNN all streaming the action, and Wroe is hoping for another “game changing event” in Moscow.

“Our ambition is for the people of Moscow to be as proud of this as they were when they sent a man to space,” he said.

The upcoming tournament will have 24 teams, with the same number of female teams as male. Next summer, national leaders for the teams taking part will go out to Moscow during the Confederations Cup – the warm up tournament for the World Cup – for a congress on the rights of street children.