Street Child United is part of the Common Goal family. They organise the Street Child World Cup. Due to Corona it hasn’t taken place for several years. The next version will take place in Qatar in October, several weeks before the 2022 FIFA World Cup begins. A team from Liverpool is being sent by Everton Football in the Community to represent England in Qatar. The Ball’s visit to Goodison Park (home of Everton FC) was an opportunity to run SOF’s “Football under the Climate Microscope” education module with the members of the EITC team (coaches and youth players) and to prepare them to take a replica of The Ball with them to Qatar.
The Street Child World Cup Doha 2022, 5th – 15th October 2022, will bring street-connected young people from across the world together to take part in a football tournament, a festival of arts and advocate for their rights and protection through a child-focused Congress and General Assembly.
We spoke with these youngsters (mostly school drop-outs with challenging backgrounds from 14 to 16 years of age) about The Ball and its key messages of gender equality, fair play and climate action. These boys have hardly ventured outside of Liverpool, let alone into another country. We wanted to encourage them to use The Ball as a tool to get in contact with many different people at home in Liverpool and then to embrace the wider world in Qatar. Spirit had also invited the well-known German football author Ronny Blaschke to join the workshop and speak to the children about his experience and knowledge of Qatar. Qatar could be the opportunity of a lifetime and a possible gamechanger for some of these youngsters who are often living life on a knife edge: A life of drugs and crime is a definite possibility for some of them. The Spirit crew felt that in the 5 hours we spent together that they began to embrace the idea of The Ball and together with EITC’s coaches to take responsibility for it.
EFITC coaches had participated in The Ball welcome event two days earlier. We saw their enthusiasm. They not only understood the message of The Ball but recognised that its core values are also EFITC’s. They deeply care about their work and have a strong bond with the youngsters. During the workshop, after a fair play football session, The Street Child World Cup Ball was handed over.
During the workshop we brainstormed ways in which their team could use this ball in the coming months in the local community before bringing it and its messages to Qatar. Ideas for local action include: taking The Ball home to their families, presenting it at their schools, visiting grassroots clubs, having legends of Everton and fans head it and sign it at Goodison Park and pledge support, and engaging the mayors of Liverpool and Manchester to support the project. As we left the EITC community hub Anthony and the team from EFITC were already throwing The Ball to their colleagues to do headers and to sign it. We left feeling confident that the Spirit is strong with them and excited to virtually follow their journey with their ball to Qatar.
„Recently we have been working very closely to Spirit of Football. Our values are very much aligned to Spirit of Football. We are really behind gender equality, climate action and fair play. We have been learning today about climate change, what we can do as a community, what we can do as staff and what message we can give to our participants and how they can help change the world.
At ETIC we are taking a group of young people who are participants to the SCWC in Qatar. We have been given a ball which we are going to share around our community: in our schools, our workplaces and the people that we work with. To share the message and also get them to pledge to make a difference. This Ball is going to travel from here at Goodison Park all the way to Qatar where our participants will be representing us. One Ball, One World” – Anthony Harden, Community and Support Manager at EITC.
Ronny Blaschke, football journalist and author:
“Far too little thought is being given to climate protection in football. All of us: fans, players, even we journalists should think about it. Where do the jerseys come from? What kind of sponsors does football have? It’s often airlines and car manufacturers – quite a lot of CO2 is emitted there. Spirit of Football, who I saw in action at their workshop here at Everton F.C today, addresses these things and shows that this complicated, difficult topic and working for climate protection can be fun. That’s why I have been given a pretty good impression and I’m glad that I’m here today. One Ball, One World.”
