For the first time, on May 26, the global game will come together in one shared moment to give back with the launch of World Football Giving Day.
The initiative is backed by over 100 organizations from around the world with support from well-known names from football, including Jurgen Klopp, Juan Mata, Vivianne Miedema, Dani Olmo, Irene Paredes, Jessie Fleming and Sofie Junge Pedersen as well as partners adidas and Right to Dream.
The idea, at a time of growing global division and ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, is for World Football Giving Day to bring people together to participate and donate.
It is powered by Common Goal, the initiative launched by Mata in 2017 where football figures pledged to donate a percentage of their salary. More than 500 have taken this pledge and raised millions for projects around the world.
Now Common Goal CEO Mary Connor wants to get everyone involved.
“Football can mirror the world or it can choose to shape it,” says Connor Sky Sports.
“At Common Goal, we call ourselves the home of football forever because we choose the latter. We choose to use it to shape it into positive outcomes, especially for young people and communities.
“Common Goal really struck a chord with athletes who took this action to give back, but we know at this moment in the world that there has been a reduction in aid to the tune of millions of dollars. Almost half of non-profit organizations say their funding situation is unstable.
“We have to act and we shouldn’t leave that action to just the players. That’s what World Football Giving Day is about. Giving a moment where everyone who loves the game, everyone who is engaged in the game, who are billions, can do something.
“There is so much to feel helpless about in the world. But actually we are not helpless. Just as we can act, and we can act through the love of something that unites us.”
Connor is a former professional athlete herself who co-founded Soccer Without Borders prior to her involvement with Common Goal. She understands the power of games to bring people together.
There is the story of her time in Ninh Binh, Vietnam. “I go to a little bodega. I buy a soccer ball. The next day I’m there juggling with my friend, also a woman. All of a sudden the whole town starts coming out. People are watching. Men are joining in and playing,” says Connor.
“Football can challenge assumptions. All the qualities that would make me different or different or even someone to be afraid of or question, they disappear because now we’re literally connected. We’re literally playing together.
“And it’s happened to me in dozens of countries and sometimes not even when I’m playing, just by talking to someone in a taxi. “Who’s your favorite team? Oh, I’m here for the football.” I think it’s just that spark of connection.”
There is the example of Nicaragua, a country with one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in Latin America, where half of the children do not pass sixth grade. “Football can solve that,” Connor says. By organizing girls’ football, we have succeeded in changing things.
“When girls play soccer, they take such ownership of their bodies. When boys see girls playing soccer, they see them not just as someone they want to be involved in a relationship with, but as someone who is their peer. It can literally change those things.
“There are thousands of creative ways in our network that people are doing it. They’re using coaches to teach about HIV AIDS prevention, malaria, mental health. They’re tackling gender-based violence, climate action.
“All these problems that we know face humanity, I guarantee you there is an organization out there that has found a way to use football to educate, to inspire, to mobilize people to take action.”
Connor appreciates that in some ways, despite never being more connected, the world can feel more divided than ever.
But nothing unites like football.
“We have a Football for Good organization in Israel, in Palestine, in Eastern Europe, in Colombia. What else but football reminds us that we are people first. Above language, above culture, above skin color, everything, we are people with something in common.”
This summer represents a defining moment. Launching in the run-up to the World Cup and aiming to build on the UN’s World Football Day – declared by the UN and marked on 25 May – World Football Giving Day intends to become an annual event.
“Our goal is for this to be the start of a tradition and grow year by year to mobilize resources where they are most needed.
“And for it to unite.”
To take action, go to the World Football Giving Day website (www.worldfootballgivingday.org) to donate to one of the 100+ non-profit organizations registered, or think of your own way to give back in your local community or globally.