The Ball 2010

Arriving with The Ball in Chefchaouen late on a damp and chilly Monday evening felt like we had stumbled upon a Star Wars convention. Hooded OB1-style djellabas everywhere on the street, coming out of every tiny poorly-lit alleyway, backstreet and in the cafés, restaurants and shops too. At first they look slightly intimidating; full of secrets and wizard-like magic.

Suddenly, a jedi knight sprung out of his carpet shop, flipped his hood from his head to reveal a huge grin. He has seen something that he liked.

“Le Ballon” he said in French.
“The Ball” came the reply.
“Give me The Ball. Come,” he directed.

We followed him into his shop out of the dark and the rain. The floor covered with sawdust. The walls displaying elaborate, colourful hand-made woollen carpets and clothing. It was time for keepie-uppie. Four guys, three djellabas and a ball.

We weren’t on the dark side anymore.

Hello from the UK,

I’m Phil one of the coordinators of this epic journey and you find me busy supporting the road crew from my home in Brighton as Andrew and Christian race with The Ball through Europe. My excitement is building fast… laced with some apprehension and a heavy heart (I leave behind my dear wife and two year old boy) as I prepare all manner of travel paraphernalia, from football pump to guitar, in readiness to leave.

I’m joining Andrew and The Ball through West Africa in a week’s time and, in the meantime, am doing my best to resemble a pin cushion as I receive vaccinations from all directions. Shades of voodoo… a blessing from ancestral western spirits perhaps? The Ball will need all the help it can muster… from jujus to doctors, I’ll consider them all.

Our forum is a new area.. so jump into the game and leave your skills here in whatever form you fancy… well wishing, bad wishing, your football stories, people and places we might visit on the journey and more… and more besides.

Tomorrow The Ball takes a boat ride across the Mediterranean Sea to Africa and Morocco.

Me, I’m packing my bags…  bound for glory. Ready or not, West Africa, here I come.

This ball is your ball.

Phil x

We said our goodbyes to Erfurt. I left my son behind, deciding not to stop by his mother’s for another heart-wrenching goodbye that morning of departure. We had had our goodbye the day before and it left me feeling sick. I couldn’t deal with another one that morning. Another goodbye to my girlfriend Jessica followed, but that was more of a positive as we will be seeing each other soon enough. My son has no idea of what I am doing. He has understood that Papa is coming back in the summer but my son has no idea of time. He’s just 3.5 years old. Ahhh Pauli, I am going to miss you terribly.

We arrive in Ulm, wonderfully hosted by Florian, a night time street kick about in front of Ulm Minster.

Ulm Münster spire shrouded by fog at night

Our host Florian

Before we retired that evening we received another message from Inter Milan: complementary tickets for the game on Sunday — and Monday morning photoshoot with a World Cup star. “Which one?” we wondered out loud. “Eto’o”, I said. Or would it be Inter captain and Argentinian legend Zanetti? Hmm, perhaps Julio Cesar or Walter Samuel?

I feel like I need another 10 days to really be ready to travel but I have another 1.5 days.

Why does the taxman come calling in my weakest hour? Why does my roommate illegally download a psycho-thriller from the internet — and why does a lawyer in Berlin have to find out about it and bill me (my name is on the internet connection) a few days before the biggest trip of my life?

Why do I suddenly just now realize the millions of little things that need to be taken care of? Why am I so disorganized? Ask my ex-wife –- she’s been telling me for years! Why is it so difficult to get a Nigerian visa? And why is it that I have to fall in love right before I leave?

And, above all, how do I say goodbye to my most treasured friend, my 3.5-year-old son? What the hell am I actually doing, going on the road to the World Cup? Suddenly, I begin to appreciate how sorely I am going to miss my son and how impossible it is for him to understand my being gone.

The doubts have been rising this last week: am I really going to be able to do this? Will I be able to keep the mosquitoes at bay? How am I going to be able to deal with the journey financially, physically, emotionally? What happens when I come back? Am I going to come back? What happens if I am attacked? How will I defend myself?

Can a football really help me through those tricky situations?

The Ball is embarking on its epic 10,000 mile odyssey through 25 countries to the World Cup in South Africa. Spirit of Football invites you to join us on January 24th to kick off The Ball 2010 with a game of three halves. Come and join us, however good or bad you are at football, wherever you come from, whichever sex you are and whether you want to play or not!

Sunday January 24th 2010
Meet at the Bandstand from 9.30am – 10am latest
Game from 10.15am until 11:45am
Post–match gathering until late-afternoon at The Prince Albert pub

What’s going on then?

We will be playing football in Battersea Park, London, in honour of the first ever game to FA rules which was played there in January 1864. The ball we play with, made in Africa in partnership with “Alive and Kicking”, becomes The Ball 2010 at kick–off. Over the next five months, it will be passed and dribbled through Europe and Africa. It will live and breathe football, from street to stadium, all the way to the pinnacle of footballing excellence — the FIFA World Cup.

The Ball 2010 is a durable, repairable, fair-trade football made in Africa in partnership with Alive and Kicking. As trustee James Flecker says: “It’s an African ball made for the poorest African communities – the very embodiment of development through football in Africa”. And by teaming up with Special Olympics Africa, The Ball 2010 will help to create awareness of people in Africa with intellectual disabilities and the many challenges they face as it visits 14 events in countries throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Game

A Game of Three Halves

If you want to play please get in touch with us, get to the Bandstand by 10am and bring along a dark and a light coloured shirt with your oldest looking shorts. We would like to kick off at about 10.15am.

First Half: The Early Game

We’ll start off with a lighthearted look back at the way football was played before the first game of FA rules. No referee, limitless numbers and no rules except for honour and fair play.

Second Half: With the 1864 rules

A short refereed match where the first ever set of FA rules apply. Well, ahem, most of them — we’ll pick teams, 11-a-side, and play a tag substitute system — to keep as many as possible involved and save the tired athletes that smoked their pipes too much in the first half.

Third Half: With modern rules

Darks and Lights will be battling it out to the bitter end with the modern game… pipes and flat caps left on the sidelines.

Dan Magness

Freestyle football genius Dan will be there joining in the festivities and showing us some of the skills that will help him on Tuesday when he will attempt to break a fifth world record by juggling a ball thirty miles across London and visiting all Premier League stadiums in the capital in the process. To be successful he must keep the ball under control at all times using all parts of his body (except his hands) and keep the ball off the ground. Go Dan!

Extra Time

After the football, we will retire to a private room upstairs at The Prince Albert pub, which stands just outside the Albert Gate on the north-west side of Battersea Park. There will be an auction, where replicas of The Ball 2010 signed by the likes of Franz Beckenbauer and other famous footballers can be purchased (donations go to support our journey). Short films of previous journeys (2002 and 2006) will be shown.

The evening of that first game in 1864, the FA made this toast – “Success to Football, irrespective of class and creed”. We will be adding “sex” and “talent” to the list.

Please come and join us as we celebrate the beautiful game.

Battersea Park Map