My promise to you; quite simply, for every £10 you give I will personally hand-deliver a ball direct to a girl or boy living in some of the poorest parts of rural Sierra Leone

nb. ALL money raised goes directly to funding the balls and getting them to the kids (I'll be covering my own costs e.g. flight, subsistence, insurance and unfortunately.......,jabs !!!)

What does the Great Football Giveaway do?

Put simply, we buy footballs with donations from you, our supporters, and give them direct to children living in poor rural areas of Africa.  In the last few years our volunteers have hand delivered over 20,000 footballs and netballs direct to kids in some of the poorest rural areas of Uganda, Angola, Zambia, Rwanda, Malawi and Tanzania. Over time, with the support of football fans and players alike, we want to go to more countries across Africa suffering poverty, more refugee camps, and where appropriate more areas of civil conflict - in short wherever kids are denied the chance to kick a ball about and enjoy their childhood, we'll go.

What am I up to?

On November 10th together with my son Wills, I'll be heading out to Sierra Leone to complete a project that was interrupted and delayed by Covid back in 2019 - we will be delivering  the final consignment of 1,000 footballs around the country;  Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries in the world and sits at the bottom of World Health Organisation table of poorest countries and linked to that, one of the lowest life expectancy of any country in the world.  

Moreover, they have experienced a bloody 10-year long civil and then were hit with the Ebola virus so anything we can do to put a smile on these kids faces has got to be worth the effort.

So, as with previous projects we will be going well and truly off the tourist trail with a view to finding that poorer rural school with no sports facilities, that orphanage or community project doing everything it can to survive or that boy or girl by the side of the road or in the remote village just kicking a rag-ball around.

How can you help

With the football season not long started, I'm reflecting that never has the beautiful game been so tarnished by the excesses of money, hype and celebrity.  The Great Football Giveaway provides you with a fantastic opportunity to show what is really important about the beautiful game and how football can be used as a force for good.

My promise to you is that if you donate (i.e. buy a ball for) a tenner, I'll promise to personally deliver that ball straight into the hands (or feet) of some of the most disadvantaged children in the world.  So it's pretty simple, if you love football for what it is and for what it can really mean, namely loads of fun and smiles, then join in and give a ball - Cheers!! 

To see the difference a ball can make and information on what a typical project entails and how you become more directly involved , just visit the The GFG website

About the charity
The Great Football Giveaway (GFG) is a registered charity (UK reg. 1113148) that relies 100% on volunteers i.e. we don't have any paid staff or rented offices. Any funds donated go directly into buying balls, pumps, valves, transport costs and other costs directly associated with the projects. As soon as enough balls are collected to fill one shipping container, donations go towards more footballs for future projects.