The Ball 2010

What more can I say?

Not much…

Football has always been popular — of that there can be no doubt. Phil found this video today which (starting at around 1:20) tells the story of a football being found behind the panelling in a bedchamber once used by Mary Queen of Scots:

That makes the ball that was discovered well over 400 years old.

The reason that The Ball’s “Olympian” journey kicks off from Battersea Park is not because it celebrates the first game of football, but because the game was the first to be played under FA rules. It is the astonishing spread of those rules which allows the world to play the game together — and that’s something well worth celebrating…

Spirit of Football is by no means the only project looking to support African organisations through the donation of footballs — have a look at Footballs for Fun, who are also partners of Alive & Kicking, and who are also supporting their initiative to see 100,000 balls donated to Africa as a result of the 2010 World Cup:

So the last entry on the blog put the case against football, or at least the hype surrounding it. This one shows the flip side of the hype and how it can sometimes be a good thing:

Sometimes you just have to put the counter-argument. Especially when it’s as well put as this:

Check out the football game action at about 1min 50sec into the video:

This impresses and terrifies me at one and the same time.