At the stadium in the capital of Mali, Bamako Steve Rutter, former manager of Yeovil Town and Alan Gillet, who worked at Wimbledon and managed the Soloman Islands, have run a scheme called Coaching for Hope.

The Mali project is part of a range of FA activities and FA executive director David Davies said: "When people say we should be building changing-rooms in Biggleswade, I agree, but we also have a responsibility around the world.

"We spend 99.6 per cent of our money on England and 0.4 per cent on the rest of the world. We need sponsors to step in, like Nationwide have done in Mali. We can make a difference."

Part of the Nationwide-sponsored FA initiative, with kits donated by the likes of Queens Park Rangers, Hull City, and non-League Hanwell Town, the Mali coaches are expected to return to their clubs or villages and pass on their knowledge about football and HIV to children they will be coaching.

"Football can be used as a power for good, as an instrument for addressing particular problems, in this case HIV/Aids," added Davies.

"When we took Rio Ferdinand, David James and Gary Neville to Malawi the day after the FA Cup final, 10,000 people turned up at the stadium. The players ran coaching sessions, and did exercises that involved an HIV message.

"The players went to a hospital, and were very moved by what they saw. One doctor said to Rio and Gary: 'Forty-eight hours ago we saw you in a huge match in Cardiff, and now here you are in our hospital. You can't imagine what that means to us that you choose to be here'. The players are now on billboards all over Malawi."

International Service estimates there are 75,000 Aids orphans in Mali. "The HIV situation is terrible here in Mali," explained Nawal Boumaza, a health expert from Grenoble. "We want to raise the awareness of young players about HIV. We make the coaches aware that part of their responsibility is to educate their young players about HIV."

The FA plans to take players to Africa again and Davies plans to make trip to Iraq and around the world as part of plans to pass on knowledge and education to under-privileged coaches and children.