Fans will be friends.
Hands across the ocean.
Hands across the sea.
Hands touching hands.
Singing songs is free.Fans willl be friends, my friend.
Playing football in the streets.
The Ball is the ball my friend.
The language everybody speaks.
Thanks Mark!
Sweetness and light broke out on the 21st September this year as the World Peace Day campaign reached Herzogenaurach…
Oder auf Deutsch:
Seems like football was one of the impulses for the founding of the project:
In early 2000, Jeremy Gilley, filmmaker and founder of Peace One Day, was standing on the sidelines of a football (soccer) match in Somalia. Next to him, stood a boy – no older than nine – who was holding a machine gun. Jeremy was struck by the simple fact that football was the only thing in this war-torn country that could overturn conflict and bring people together.
While travelling in the Middle East, a few months later, Jeremy heard further tales of two opposing sides coming together in peace on the football pitch. “I realised then that football was the perfect game to play on Peace Day, in a gesture reminiscent of the Christmas Truce, during World War I, when soldiers from both the German and English sides came out of their trenches to play a game of football.”
[Source]
Big respect to Jeremy Gilley for this amazing campaign.
The Ball at Rot-Weiss ErfurtThe Ball was a guest of honour in Stiegerwald Stadion in Erfurt on Saturday September 19th. The Ball was introduced to the crowd by the stadium speaker before kick-off, it sat in the home team’s dugout, and it met a few famous German footballers before taking its place in the main stand to watch a rather dour match. For the record, Rot Weiss Erfurt were defeated 2-1 by Wehen-Weisbaden.
The Ball in Erfurt with famous DDR footballer Rüdiger Schnuphase
The Ball in BerlinThe Ball was a guest at the closing event of the Goethe-Institut project Languages without Borders (Sprachen ohne Grenzen) in Berlin on Thursday September 17. The Ball was there to present its partner project Todo-Aleman, the Goethe-Institut’s interactive 3 language youth portal.
For more information about this event (in German) please follow this link.
The ceremonial start of the FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour took place at FIFA HQ today. Ray Stubbs, who recently left the BBC, introduced the speakers including Sepp Blatter, Muhtar Kent, chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola and legendary Cameroon striker, Roger Milla. But it was left to Joseph Tripodi, a marketing guy from Coca Cola to outline their plans…
Update: it seems you can now watch an archived copy of the live stream at the FIFA website – click on the link in the middle of the page to open a popup window that contains the video.
Okay, so the trophy will visit a lot of countries, incuding every African country. Which is nice. And they’ve chosen Somalian rapper K’naan to write the theme tune. Here’s what he sounds like…
However, the tour itself was perhaps the least interesting thing that Coca Cola announced… what I liked most was what they call the Coca Cola Celebration Award, which will be awarded to the the footballer responsible for most popular post-goal celebration at the World Cup – as voted for by the public. Each time a goal is scored which is followed by a celebration that can be considered a dance, Coca Cola will also donate money (although they didn’t say how much) to their Water For Schools fund.
Sounds like Peter Crouch is going to have to teach all the England players his robot dance if they’re going to qualify for the award…
This film is one of what is apparently going to be a series of 50 short films about football in Africa. Here’s what they have to say about it on YouTube:
Our ambition, a year before the world cup 2010 in South-Africa, is to portray a positive vision of Africa, an Africa that lives, thrives, and enthuses on football. The films and portraits will bring to life moments: poignant, funny, and poetic stories and stills that reflect the imagination and energy that belong to the African soil. The authentic and loveable African spirit brought to life in a simple, memorable and relevant way. An honest, grass root portrayal of football made in Africa.
I can’t wait to see the other films, if this one is anything to go by.
This year’s Homeless World Cup started on Monday. You can follow the action via their YouTube channel and group, though at time of writing, it’s only the Scots who have posted anything to it. Far less personal (but way more anthemic) is this offering from Team Philippines:
The Ball wishes all the participants the best of luck and the best of times.
A nice example of football coverage which doesn’t include professional pundits, commentators or stars…
Props to From A Left Wing for the heads up and Arroyo Seco Films for the trailer.
