Diary notice: 29.4.2023
From April 29 until May 7, “The Ball”, Football’s Olympic Torch, will be in Singapore. The Ball is making its way around the globe from Battersea Park in London, where the first official football match was played, to Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand, where the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup will begin on July 20, 2023.
As The Ball makes its way around the globe, it collects signatures from people who promise to support efforts to achieve gender equality and climate action. The Ball has been signed by almost 56,000 individuals worldwide since 2002. Over 30 events and workshops that promoted action on gender equality and climate change among football aficionados were put on by 57 partner groups between 2022 and 2023.
The Ball in Singapore
Since its arrival on April 29, The Ball has collected signatures and pledges from people in Singapore, like here in the Marina Parade food court (The Ball carriers Sophia and Iris with Lilly pledging on teaching ethical values to children).
On May 3 and 5, The Ball will visit the Ministry of Education Language Centre (MOELC) in Bishan and will hold a workshop with students there on the topics of fair play, sustainabil-ity and gender equality supported by the local Goethe Institute. As this group of students is studying German, this time the workshop will be conducted in German. On the other days, The Ball will meet other athletes and environmentalists.
In between, The Ball, after very busy schedules in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and the Philippines, is taking a well-deserved rest, as well as some planning days to prepare for the upcoming activities in Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta and Bali, Fiji and Kiribati as well as New Zea-land and Australia.
Subbing of the Ball carriers
Thank you to our great team who carried The Ball through the first four countries of The Ball’s Southeast Asia journey. Joaquin loved the excitement for football in Southeast Asia and shared his love for the sport with everyone he met on the way. Sophia shared her en-ergy and enthusiasm for The Ball and Valeree contributed with her great knowledge of sus-tainability and sport and local connections in the Philippines. Joaquin is going back to Germany to continue his local project work for Spirit of Football in Germany, as well as So-phia, who will do a handover of all the task to the new ball carrier sub-in Iris. Valeree will stay in the Philippines and hopefully meet The Ball again soon. Lead-carrier Andrew will continue The Ball Journey with Iris from Singapore to Malaysia and Indonesia on to the Pa-cific and then NZ and AUS. Keep following The Ball’s Journey on Instagram and The Ball Blog.
Prominent Supporters
The first person to sign The Ball on its 12-month global climate action and advocacy mis-sion was Katie Rood, the professional footballer who plays for Hearts FC and the New Zea-land National Team had this to say:
“Everyone loves the World Cup, but if we are to be able to continue playing it in the future, we need collective and urgent climate action. The journey of The Ball across land and sea from London to New Zealand is an opportunity for football to get its environmental act in order. I am going to take action. Are you?”
Spirit of Football’s Ambassador and Liverpool F.C. manager Jürgen Klopp is also support-ing The Ball:
“It is a ball for us all. Be part of our team. Everyone can play. Respect your team-mates, your opponents and the environment. One Ball, One World.”
Do you want to be involved in the project? Follow The Ball’s journey and make your own pledge. To find out more about the non-profit organization Spirit of Football click here.
Background Information
Supported by the FIFA Foundation and the Swedish Postcode Foundation, Spirit of Football de-veloped and tested educational resources with our partners Pledgeball and Football for Future fo-cusing 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 part-ner 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), eventual-ly 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.
The Ball was presented in cooperation with the United Nations UNFCCC at COP 27 in Egypt last November.
For more information, please contact:
Iris Albulet: iris@spiritoffootball.de and Andrew Aris: andrew@spiritoffootball.de
Press release - The Ball has reached Singapore 29 April 2023
Download Press release - The Ball has reached Singapore 29 April 2023