Local Team favour Fairtrade footballs
Written by author on March 11, 2016
The Greystone Rovers Foundation from Dumfries as part of Fairtrade fortnight this week announced that their Youth Football Club will now train and play with Fairtrade footballs as part of raising awareness of Fairtrade. The local Charity spokesperson for Greystone Alisa Anderson said: Greystone Rovers with its large youth membership obviously purchase a large number of footballs in any given season therefore we wish to make sure that where we purchase these footballs people are getting a fair price and as a result improves the lives of many people who are living in areas of deprivation and when we consider a stitcher making a Fairtrade Football earns twice as much per ball as they do for a non-Fairtrade football then in buying Fairtrade footballs removes you from an economy which treats children and their families unfairly.
We hope that in making this commitment we can play a small but important part in the Fairtrade awareness and we also hope it will engage some of our young members to think about and research the reasons as to why they kick a Fairtrade football about at their local youth football club. Angus Coull, Bala Sport Joint MD said: “We’re delighted that Greystone Rovers have chosen to play with Fairtrade balls from Bala Sport. It’s great to see a club show some fairness and respect towards the men and women who make the balls in developing countries. “In making this choice the young players can be sure that the workers who hand stitched their Bala Team balls were paid fairly, work in safe conditions and benefit from the extra 10% Fairtrade Premium paid from the sale of every Bala ball. “I’ve seen for myself how significant these benefits are, projects like free eye tests and subsidised treatment, free school books for their kids and a water purification plant providing free safe clean drinking water, not just for workers, but for anyone in the community. Fairtrade really is a game changer.” “It would be great if other clubs and organisations would follow Greystone Rovers’ example and play fair with Fairtrade certified balls.
Bala balls are every bit as good if not better than some of the big brand products and the Team ball is made to the same standards as FIFA Inspected balls. “Whilst one in 3 bananas sold in UK supermarkets is Fairtrade, only a tiny amount of the 6 million sports balls we buy a year carry the Fairtrade mark. If we can persuade more clubs like Greystone Rovers to make the ethical choice, more
