Links

Our Partners

Alive & Kicking
"Alive & Kicking is a UK registered charity that makes cheap, tough, repairable footballs, netballs and volleyballs using African skills and African leather. Each carries a message about HIV/AIDS and malaria." The Ball 2010 will be an Alive & Kicking ball. You can donate their footballs to worthy causes via Just Giving.

Special Olympics Africa
"Special Olympics is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering individuals with intellectual disabilities to become physically fit, productive and respected members of society through sports training and competition.".

Goethe-Institut Todo Alemán
"Todo Alemán is an interactive, three language, youth web portal run by the Goethe-Institut for language learners on the web, which will include a blog about The Ball and its journey from London to Johannesburg next year.".

Our partner Spirit of Football project
From their website: "Spirit of Football is a humanitarian non-governmental organization (NGO), led by students at the University of Erfurt, that works with public organizations, private persons and the business community with the intention of fighting racism, promoting tolerance and fair play, providing a stimulus for regional economic growth and which has an underlying theme of life-long learning."

2010 Links

Official Website of the FIFA World Cup 2010
The World Cup 2010 mothership as it currently stands.

FCO Travel Advice
The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office's World Cup travel advice page - for UK citizens planning to attend the World Cup.

Football Links

BBC Your Game
"Your Game is a partnership between the BBC and the Football Foundation which offers young people, aged 16 to 25, from under-served communities the chance to get involved in football, music and the media."

Grassroot Soccer
"Using the power of soccer in the fight against AIDS, Grassroot Soccer provides African youth with the skills and support to live HIV free." Ethan Zohn's valiant effort to tackle the AIDS issue in Africa through the magic of the beautiful game.

The Homeless World Cup
From their website: "Scotland's event capital, Edinburgh, renowned for its many festivals and sports tournaments hosted the Homeless World Cup 2005. The Cup was played at Princess Street Gardens, right at Edinburgh castle, one of the most frequented sites of the city, from July 20th - 24th. 32 countries participated. Patronage and support comes from the UN, as well as from football clubs such as Manchester United."

Street Football World
From their website: "streetfootballworld develops a center of competence that interconnects and strengthens long-term football based social/development initiatives that transform the lives of disadvantaged individuals from around the world."

TackleAfrica
TackleAfrica operate tours made up of football matches in remote African communities to convey key messages and information about AIDS/HIV. Follow the link above to read about their latest trip.

Association of Football Statisticians
Go on, you know you love those stats... you can get lots of lovely ones at this site, including a detailed history of the game.

The Football Fans Union
A site set up to protest against the role of Carlton & Granada in the ITV Digital fiasco, which threatened to make many English football clubs bankrupt. Now know as The Football Fans Census, they are tackling other issues of importance to fans in the UK.

Philosophy Football T-Shirts
A selection of the coolest football t-shirts on the planet. Co-founded by Mark Perryman, organiser of the LondonEnglandFans group and author of Going Oriental, an eminently readable assessment of the state of the game, post Japan & Korea.

The Global Game
Great football culture blog. In their own words: "The suggestion is that football must be played at a high level, and that is untrue. The word "football" simply pays homage to a global spirit, which can be embodied by the six-year-old girl kicking a ball by herself in a field; in fact, we prefer stories, poetry or photography about the latter to the "big soccer" that receives the most prominence."

2006 Links

Official Website of the FIFA World Cup 2006
The World Cup 2006 mothership.

The BBC's World Cup Blog
The BBC's presence in the World Cup blogosphere is this multi-author blog. Should be busy, particularly during the competition. Worth looking in on.

2002 Links

Official Website of the Fifa World Cup 2002
The World Cup 2002 mothership.

World Cup 2002 Blog
An irreverent look at the action during the World Cup, written by a number of different authors from different countries.

Travel Sites

FCO Travel Advice
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office's travel advice pages. They always publish a section for UK citizens planning to attend the World Cup well in advance of the event.

Farkhad and Maya's Tours
Mir Farkhad Bakhramov helped us immensely in the Central Asia leg of our journey. This is his website - we heartily recommend his services to anyone going to the region.

Marie's World Tour
A travelogue which showed us what was possible with the web.

Ben Saunders Transarctic Expedition
A travelogue that shows us what is now possible with the web. I can't recommend this site highly enough. Way to go Ben!