The Homeless World Cup will be played with Fairtrade footballs thanks to Scotmid Co-operative and Bala Sport who have teamed up as official match ball partners to support the unique sporting event to be held in Glasgow in July. The co-sponsorship announcement comes within Fairtrade fortnight (29th Feb – 13th March).
Alexandra Black, Homeless World Cup sponsorship manager said: “We’re delighted to announce this key partnership with Scotmid and also with Bala Sport, the Glasgow based Fairtrade sports balls co-operative, who both join our group of major sponsors for the Homeless World Cup in Glasgow.
“Securing this partnership ensures, critically for us, that every game at the Homeless World Cup will be played using a Fairtrade ball, illustrating an important part of the ethos of the tournament.”
Malcolm Brown, Head of Corporate Communications at Scotmid said: “At Scotmid we pride ourselves on our Fairtrade credentials and on making a positive contribution to the communities in which we operate. The ethical nature of this superb event is a perfect fit for our Society.
“Being able to support the event, particularly by providing footballs that are made ethically is great. It is clear that the event will not only benefit the teams from the 51 countries involved but it will provide a strong social and economic benefit to Scotland.”
Angus Coull, Joint Managing Director at Bala Sport said: “Using Fairtrade balls at the Homeless World Cup is a fantastic opportunity to highlight the issues around production of sports balls. Currently only a tiny fraction of the balls bought in the UK are Fairtrade certified.
“Both Bala Sport and Scotmid are passionate about levelling the playing field and giving the workers who hand make our high quality footballs in Pakistan a fair deal. Not only do they receive fair pay and work in safe conditions, they also benefit from the extra Fairtrade Premium which they invest in the likes of free healthcare and water purification plants, the latter for the benefit of the whole community, not just workers.
“Fairtrade changes lives and we look forward to being part of this amazing and ground-breaking initiative that has also proven to change lives in a major way for homeless men and women around the world.”