{"id":263,"date":"2018-03-26T11:15:32","date_gmt":"2018-03-26T10:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2018\/?p=263"},"modified":"2018-04-25T10:45:13","modified_gmt":"2018-04-25T09:45:13","slug":"london-start-of-the-fifth-ball-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2018\/2018\/03\/26\/london-start-of-the-fifth-ball-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"LONDON – Start of the Fifth Ball Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"
Read this post in German<\/a><\/div>

Four years after the last Ball Journey, the moment for the Kick-off 2018 had come on March 25th! Spirit of Football has started its fifth journey, which will take The Ball through 15 countries to the World Cup in Russia. The official opening began with a fair-play football game, during which children and adults from London and Erfurt experienced the \u201cSpirit of the Beautiful Game\u201d themselves. As in every such game, the six fair play-rules were adhered to and creative team names, including team choreographies, were invented \u2013 a fun activity, which was enhanced by fake moustaches and verbose accompanying commentaries by The Terrible Sven. <\/p>\n

Much applause was received by the Choir of the Sacred Heart & St Mary\u2019s RC primary schools, which followed an English tradition, where the church hymn “Abide with me” is sung before every important game. After this historical tuning-into things, official speeches were held. The representatives of Spirit of Football in Brazil, the UK and Germany presented the four balls from past journeys. The main ball carrier for 2018, Benni Gr\u00fcnewald, held the fifth, “The Ball 2018”. After Frank Albers (representative of the Robert Bosch Foundation) und Nicole Zeuner (Friedrich Ebert Foundation) had emphasised the socio-political importance of the Journey of the Ball through the EU and neighbouring countries in their speeches the players started the first official game with “The Ball 2018”.<\/p>\n

In 2010 The Ball was kicked off by Andrew Aris, in 2014 this was the privilege of Fernando Godoy. This year it was Sven S\u00f6derberg, who propelled The Ball 2018 on its way with a forceful instep kick. Infused with this energy, “Football\u2019s Olympic Torch” will meet many people of different backgrounds within the next months and allow them to experience the connective power of the sport. Overcoming limits; setting up room for encounters; celebrating diversity \u2013 this is the magic which “The Ball” creates wherever it goes. <\/p>\n

The first game, played according to the Football Association rules of 1864, ended 3:4. It was not easy for the participants to stick to the unfamiliar rules of dribbling forwards and passing backwards, doing without a crossbar on the goal, the first player touching the ball throwing it in at right angles with the boundary line, changing sides after every goal. Nevertheless, all players were happy after this first game and all the smiling faces (moustaches included) made The Ball very excited about the first of several thousand signatures.<\/p>\n

Kick-Off impressions<\/h2>\n
\"Informationen <\/a>
Informationen \u00fcber die vergangenen Ballreisen werden aufgehangen <\/div> <\/div>
\"Die <\/a>
Die G\u00e4ste sind gespannt auf das erste FairPlay-Match <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"FairPlay-Coach <\/a>
FairPlay-Coach Basti-Fantasti hat sich in Schale geworfen <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Die <\/a>
Die f\u00fcnf B\u00e4lle treffen sich zu einem smalltalk am Seitenrand <\/div> <\/div>
\"Auch <\/a>
Auch in London werden vor jedem Spiel die FairPlay-Regeln erkl\u00e4rt <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Der <\/a>
Der Anstoss wird durch das international bekannte Schnick-Schnack-Schnuck-Spiel bestimmt <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Bitte <\/a>
Bitte l\u00e4cheln f\u00fcr das Mannschaftsfoto <\/div> <\/div>
\"Bitte <\/a>
Bitte l\u00e4cheln f\u00fcr das Mannschaftsfoto <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Bitte <\/a>
Bitte l\u00e4cheln f\u00fcr das Mannschaftsfoto <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Bitte <\/a>
Bitte l\u00e4cheln f\u00fcr das Mannschaftsfoto <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Bitte <\/a>
Bitte l\u00e4cheln f\u00fcr das Mannschaftsfoto <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Bitte <\/a>
Bitte l\u00e4cheln f\u00fcr das Mannschaftsfoto <\/div> <\/div>
\"Der <\/a>
Der Teamjubel wird einstudiert <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Team <\/a>
Team red = extrem cool <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Thumbs <\/a>
Thumbs up for The Ball <\/div> <\/div>
\"Der <\/a>
Der historische Moment: Sven Soederberg bringt The Ball 2018 ins Rollen <\/div> <\/div>
\"Das <\/a>
Das erste Spiel mit The Ball <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Wie <\/a>
Wie es sich f\u00fcr alle fairen AthletInnen geh\u00f6rt: shake hands before the game <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Die <\/a>
Die ZauscherInnen sorgen f\u00fcr gute Stimmung <\/div> <\/div>
\"Trotz <\/a>
Trotz eines hektischen Spieles, bleibt Zeit f\u00fcr ein kleines Intervierw <\/div> <\/div>
\"Robert <\/a>
Robert Pohlig mit perfekter Schusshaltung anno 1864 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Der <\/a>
Der Referee sorgt f\u00fcr die Einhaltung der historischen Regeln <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Ist <\/a>
Ist das schon Fu\u00dfball … <\/div> <\/div>
\"... <\/a>
… oder noch Rugby? <\/div> <\/div>
\"Der <\/a>
Der Ansto\u00df von der Mittellinie <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Balltr\u00e4ger <\/a>
Balltr\u00e4ger Benni und sein bester Freund <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Erin <\/a>
Erin Blankenship von Equal Playing Field erh\u00e4lt “The sister Ball” f\u00fcr das niedrigste Fu\u00dfballspiel der Welt am Toten Meer <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The Ball 2014 ist extra aus Brasilien angereist <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Die <\/a>
Die ersten von mehreren Zehntausend Unterschriften werden auf The Ball <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"So <\/a>
So sieht sehen gl\u00fcckliche BallunterzeichnerInnen aus <\/div> <\/div>
\"Say <\/a>
Say “cheeeeeese” to The ball <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Jeder <\/a>
Jeder der einen Kopfball gemacht hat, darf auf The Ball unterschreiben <\/div> <\/div>
\"Christian <\/a>
Christian Wach zeigt, wie man mit Fu\u00dfb\u00e4llen jongliert <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Gentleman <\/a>
Gentleman get your self ready for some juggeling <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Die <\/a>
Die f\u00fcnf Fu\u00dfb\u00e4lle in Aktion <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Erstes <\/a>
Erstes spontanes Fu\u00dfballspiel am Nachmittag am London Eye <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Four years after the last Ball Journey, the moment for the Kick-off 2018 had come on March 25th! Spirit of Football has started its fifth journey, which will take The Ball through 15 countries to the World Cup in Russia. The official opening began with a fair-play football game, during which children and adults from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[17,8],"class_list":["post-263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-england"],"geo":{"latitude":51.47630310000000264381014858372509479522705078125,"longitude":-0.1596930000000000016147083670148276723921298980712890625,"description":"4NJ, Battersea Bridge, London, Vereinigtes K\u00f6nigreich"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2018\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2018\/03\/teaser-kick-off-2018.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":270,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions\/270"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theball.tv\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}