Football

The Global Game
On 30th June 2002, over a billion people around the globe watched the final of the World Cup. Not only are there huge audiences around the world, but football is the world’s most popular sport, being played by over 240 million men and women both for fun and for professional teams. Football has become a global industry. It creates employment – factories in Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe produce footballs, boots and shirts for companies like adidas, Nike and Umbro. However, the workers making these products rarely benefit from the huge profits to be made from their sale.

Human costs
India and Pakistan are the world’s largest exporters of footballs, which are normally hand stitched – by children. In 1995, European newspapers carried stories of how children were being exploited. They were being paid very low wages, had to work long hours and were deprived of an education. Health problems, such as deformed figures were common. In 1996 FIFA, the organising body of international football matches, developed a set of regulations called the Labour Code of Practice. Whilst this has led to some improvements, many people, including adults continue to be exploited as cheap labour.

Big business
Some people argue that professional football is becoming too much of a business. Companies want to invest in the most successful teams, which makes them far richer than their rivals. This means that they can pay huge sums of money for players around the world. Many European clubs have been criticised for buying talented players from poorer countries, promising them professional contracts, then abandoning them if they do not fulfil their potential. Yet for some players, football has been a way to a better life, for example, Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane.

Changing lives
Football doesn’t always lead to great wealth, but it can change lives. In Kenya, football is helping bring about social changes. The Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) is an umbrella organisation of 1,101 football teams, most of which are organised and run by youths under 16. Anyone can join a team, as long as they help out with local garbage clearance, take AIDS prevention classes and leadership training, and take part in other community service projects. Teams earn four points – the equivalent of winning two games – for each clean-up project within the shantytown of Mathare Valley, Nairobi.