How to Unleash the Power of Football to Change the World

How to Unleash the Power of Football to Change the World

Football: the most popular sport in the world. The beautiful game. A source of passion, devotion, hope and joy. With its global reach and billions of fans, football has a unique potential to change the world.

We believe football can, and must, be joyful, responsible, participatory, democratic, transparent and dynamic—with these values in place, there’s no stopping what football can do. Nothing demonstrates the power of the game to transform society better than the hundreds of grassroots organisations around the world that use football to change young lives. These organisations offer young people from disadvantaged backgrounds the opportunity to not just play football, but also overcome the social challenges that hold them back.

By building issues such as social integration, gender equality and employability into their football programmes—or by building football into their social outreach programmes—organisations working in the field of football for good enable well over a million young people each year to build better futures for themselves and their communities.

This is the epitome of what football is really all about—passion, teamwork and a common goal. And yet, this is only a small part of the football we know today. It’s time to unleash the power of football to effect worldwide social change at every level. Inspired by these powerful examples of local football-based programmes changing lives, and with their message of changing the world through football at our core, Unleash Football asked experts and fans from around the world for their ideas on how to make football a greater source for good.

The responses were overwhelming and all-encompassing: ideas ranged from levelling the playing field for women to channelling industry revenues into communities; from helping coaches include social and educational elements in training sessions to celebrating fair play at the highest levels.

A report released by “Unleash Football”.