On March 9, 2023 The Ball kicked off its first event on the road to the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023™ in Hanoi, Vietnam. Read here about the background of our One Ball, One World for Climate Action Project.
Setting the scene
Supported by the Swedish Postcode Lottery Foundation, Spirit of Football developed and tested educational resources with our partners Pledgeball and Football for Future focusing on sustainability and football from March to December 2022. We have been using these resources running workshops in several countries and are rolling them out on a gender equality, sustainability and climate action tour with The Ball in 2023.
The Ball is being carried (and kicked) by a team of educators from Spirit of Football and our non-profit gender equality partner Equal Playing Field in collaboration with our Football for Good network partner Common Goal. Together we will deliver workshops and run an advocacy campaign that begins in Vietnam (March), makes its way across South East Asia (March to May) and into the Pacific (June), eventually reaching New Zealand (July) and Australia (August) in time for the 2023 FIFA World Cup. We are the official sustainability partner of Festival 23 – the youth festival being organised by Football United (and Common Goal) in Sydney in August 2023.
People we meet are being asked to make personal pledges in terms of gender equality and also for our planet (sustainability). We are connecting to like-minded partners around the world and en route through Asia and into the Pacific to learn from them and to highlight their work at the same time. Please get in touch with us, if you want to host The Ball and its team in your community.
The Ball’s schedule
Vietnam: 9.3. to 18.3.2023
Cambodia: 19.3. to 28.3.2023
Thailand: 29.3. to 16.4.2023
Philippines: 17.4. to 30.4.2023
Singapore: 1.5.to 7.5.2023
Malaysia: 8.5. to 14.5.2023
Indonesia: 15.5. to 4.6.2023
Fiji: 5.6. to 21.6.202
Kiribati: 22.6. to 28.6.2023
New Zealand: 29.6. to 31.7.2023
Australia: 1.8. to 20.8.2023
Download our latest Presentation Deck for more information.
Visit our Partners section to find out who we are collaborating with.
Visit our Events page to find out what events we have run and will be running en route.
Visit our Map for an overview of where The Ball and replicas of it have been so far.
This is our Blog, tune in regularly to learn about how football is being used as a tool for good, how football can inspire girls and women to play the beautiful game, how climate change is affecting communities across SouthEast Asia and Oceania, what people in those countries think and feel about that, and how they can take and are taking action to make their communities stronger.
Meet The Team
Just who is taking The Ball on its epic 6th adventure from London to the 2023 FIFA World Cup in New Zealand and Australia? Sophia, Joaquin and Andrew set-off with The Ball from Germany and flew to Hanoi. There they met up with Valeree, Spirit of Football’s Indigenous Peoples Ambassador. These four ball-carriers are responsible for The Ball on the first leg of the journey from Vietnam to the Philippines.
Atmosfair: We pledge to reduce our emissions on flights en route to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in New Zealand and Australia.
After a great deal of research, we stumbled across Atmosfair and have made the pledge to reduce our own carbon emissions caused by the flights we have to take (Frankfurt to Hanoi for 3 people, for example). We are using Atmosfair’s emission calculator that calculates the different greenhouse gases emitted when travelling and translates them into a corresponding amount of carbon-dioxide based on their climate impact. After calculating our emissions, we pledge to make a donation corresponding to the amount of emissions we offset.
One Ball, One World!