Play First: How Unity is Showing Up Across Football During a World Cup year
When the World Cups were awarded to Russia and Qatar in 2010, respectively, despite a promising and cohesive bid by England, many critics saw the signs that FIFA was beginning to lean further into geopolitics. Sixteen years later, the criticism has only increased in volume and more so recently with the forthcoming tournament in the USA, Canada and Mexico this summer.
Closer to home, Muslim Premier League players observing Ramadan have been facing backlash for breaking fast with the league allowing for these breaks. While this mild backlash hasn’t been directly related to the players’ religious beliefs and more towards the breaks in play, it seems like a non-issue that fans and media are latching on to. Breaks in play have become increasingly frequent since the introduction of VAR in 2016, and water breaks were also implemented during the World Cup in Qatar and will continue this summer.
More locally and grassroots-focused, Manor Place and Versus teamed up this week to host small tournaments for Muslims post-Iftar, labelled The Ramadan Invitational, for both men and women. Through this, Nike has addressed a need for nighttime football spaces for players that also feel communal while acknowledging the community’s spiritual and religious beliefs.
This is a step in the right direction in terms of brand activations and imbues a real sense of community, a term that has been too loosely used in recent years. If this were to become an annual initiative, it could provide a platform for tournaments such as these to expand and become more global.
Baller League has emerged as a leading alternative platform, which challenges traditional ideas of football spectatorship but has also presented opportunities for players outside the English footballing pyramid. After two seasons of Baller UK, which has seen icons such as Alan Shearer, Ian Wright, Micha Richards, Daniel Sturridge, Chloe Kelly and Idris Elba all manage teams, the platform has expanded into the USA after its founding in Germany. Baller League offers players contracts anywhere from £300 to £800 per game and provides alternative pathways, especially for young players who aren’t offered professional contracts. The league has also acknowledged that there’s still room for improvement in terms of pay, but with season one reaching 2m views per game on YouTube, surpassing the average audience viewership of the Premier League during 24-25 with 1.5m views per game, that could be achievable in the near future.
At the peak of the football pyramid, Arsenal FC has historically struck a fine balance between being a global football powerhouse and remaining firmly grounded in the North London community. The recent announcement video of Bukayo Saka’s contract renewal featured fans and players from across the world expressing their appreciation and love for everything he’s done for the club. In recent years, Arsenal have been described as the culture club, but much of that is because, through much of its activations and campaigns, it seeks unity. After all, the club’s Latin motto, Victoria Concordia Crescit, translates to ‘Victory Through Harmony.’
Additionally, Ian Wright and Gilberto Silva travelled to Brazil for a community várzea tournament with local teams with ties to the club. The tournament, which takes place in the São Paulo suburb of Guarulhos, has been a deft and classy way of bringing the club’s Brazilian fanbase much closer despite the distance.
This contrasts greatly with the controversy and human rights violations backdrop against the USA’s involvement in the World Cup, particularly with ICE’s detention of citizens and extrajudicial killings of protesters. These stories show that football isn’t completely governed by corporate greed and that even some of the biggest organisations and institutions are motivated by a desire to bring communities together.
Amidst growing concerns surrounding football and the influx of corporate interests, audiences in local scenes and communities are looking much closer to home to feel connected to the game they love. The key to this has been looking beyond the traditional footballing structures and institutions that dominate so much of our attention.