Algeria, Bolivia, Andorra, and South Africa have been listed among teams to participate in a new series of friendly matches, launched by world football governing body, FIFA, in a bid to offer more “meaningful action” to smaller nations, reports insideworldfotball.com.

The first edition of the ‘FIFA Series’ will hold in March, according to the report, which said that the idea for the series was first floated in December 2022 and on Monday – the day that marked the eighth anniversary of Infantino’s reign at FIFA – the global governing body announced that the first edition of the FIFA Series will take place from March 18 to March 26.

“This is a great opportunity to enable member associations that do not have regular opportunities to play against teams from other confederations,” said Elkhan Mammadov, FIFA’s director of European member associations.

In the pilot scheme, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Sri Lanka and Saudi Arabia will host the matches with 20 sides from all six confederations. The Saudis will not participate because of obligations in the World Cup qualifiers.

The first iteration has a modest and ‘low key’ lineup, but Zurich is hoping to build the series into a bigger, more recognisable event on a biennial basis. Mammadov said FIFA has started “discussions with high-ranked teams”.

FIFA will cover travel costs for the March edition and said that they are working on fixing television broadcast deals and are open to taking new sponsors on board. FIFA also emphasised that the series will offer nations hosting experience, in particular Saudi Arabia.

Algeria will host matches involving its national team, Bolivia, Andorra and South Africa, while Azerbaijan, Mongolia, Tanzania and Bulgaria will play in Azerbaijan.

To play in Sri Lanka are the hosts, Papua New Guinea, Bhutan and Central African Republic, while Saudia Arabia will host games involving Group A teams, Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Guyana and Cambodia, as well as Group B matches featuring Guinea, Vanuatu, Bermuda, and Brunei.