The Kick Project

The Kick Project board has now reached agreement with the Rohingya Football Club, Kuala Lumpur, to proceed with the following program.  We are now formally raising funds for the following program, which we aim to begin in January 2016. Phase One: Part 1 Aim 1: Provide full playing kit for the current Rohingya Football Club (RFC) squad. This includes: shirts, shorts, socks, shin-pads, boots, goalkeeper equipment Aim 2: Fund a single playing space for football games. This includes paying fees on a designated municipal football field. Aim 3: Fund Transport. This includes purchasing or leasing a minivan. Part 2 Aim 1: To establish a “Ball Library”. This will be set up as a focal point for the RFC and also for the Rohingya community, with special focus on encouraging access for Rohingya children. Appropriate education initiatives (approved by both RFC representatives and The Kick Project via the Program Management Committee) may be conducted and/or...

Pic: Daily Mail We at The Kick Project take girls playing sport very seriously. We reckon both girls and boys can gain significant benefits playing organised sports. Increasing the numbers of girls in sport, in particular, is a vital goal for the well-being and health of not only the feminine half of the population, but to all society as a whole. While we respect all cultures, we are often disappointed that some cultures frown on women and girls playing - or even watching - sport. Our position is that we respectfully disagree with that position. But part of the problem we - and other like-minded organisations - face, is that there are too few positives to point to, even if the seemingly "liberal" western world. One case which has come to prominence lately has been here in our home country of Australia. Australian Example The Australian women's football (soccer) team, known as The Matildas recently went on strike, refusing to play unless better pay and condit...

Pic: pearsonblog The BBC have released the results of a study into just how much it costs to be a fan of a major football team these days. The headline figures are telling and say a lot about modern football's shift away from its grass-roots, street level base. It emerges that the average cost of the cheapest seat in the EPL now sits at 30 Pounds. Note this is for the cheapest seats. While few seats in today's super stadiums are like the old nose bleeds - behind a wall and facing at an angle - these spots are well away from the field. The minimum wage in Britain in 2015 is 6.70 Pounds/hour. So that means, the man/woman on the street working in the lowest formal jobs in the country (and we all know lower rates are paid in the informal or underground economy) would need to work for almost 5 hours to watch a 90 minute game of football. Chelsea FC is owned by a Russian whom some consider a modern day Robber Baron - in Russia at least - with an estimated net worth of o...

Pic: Ashley Feder/Getty/Guardian Australia Australians are among the world's most dedicated sports fans. So, when it was announced  before the season opener at the home ground of the Western Sydney Wanderers game on October 10, that aspects of support generated by one of the nation's more passionate fan bases was to be curtailed, it left many scratching their heads. When those supporters, the so-called Red and Black Bloc (RBB) of the Western Sydney Wanderers, A League Premiers in 2013, conducted their usual march through the streets of the outer-Sydney city of Parramatta, they were, as promised, accompanied by a considerable police presence. As is predictable, much of the media jumped on the story before the march, relishing the adversarial angle and upping the potential for violence. A lesser number reported the fact that, when the RBB did march in support of their club, nothing actually happened . Police may say that's because they were there. But, whether tha...

With news that FIFA bigwigs Sepp Blatter, Michel Platini and Jerome Valcke have been "red carded" by FIFA and will have to sit out the next three months, it looks like finally the dead wood is being pruned at the world game HQ. However, worse may be yet come. What can be done to get the people's game back to the people? The current danger is that as the poison is leeched from FIFA, nothing will be left. If corruption is as rife as many - including us here at The Kick Project - believe then more will be shown the door and still more, aware that the gravy train has terminated, will move on voluntarily. The result may well be a vacuum at the heart of the world's most valuable sport. The immediate consequences of this may be no Confederation Championships and no World Cup in three years time or beyond. That's bad enough, but the real concern is who or what will fill this void. There are essentially three likely outcomes. One, would be to hand FIFA over to e...

Those who've been paying attention will note that we are fans of the Ivory Coast national team. They warmed our hearts with their efforts to heal their troubled nation earlier this year when they won the African Cup of Nations. We at The Kick Project, have also long been fans of the Ivory Coast's Didier Drogba, star of Chelsea, Marseille, and Galatasaray among others. Arguably the best ever African footballer (argue away!), Drogba has always had a seemingly enduring belief in the power of football to generate peace. With war in his homeland exploding across the country in 2002, the formerly stable nation was split in 2, largely along ethnic lines. This left one area dominated by government forces and another by rebel forces. Many suffered and those in rebel held areas, especially so as they were isolated from the country and more or less under siege. In 2007, as the war flared again, Drogba and his team mates organised for an international game to be played in the r...

Pic credit: simonstacpoole.wordpress.com We've been thinking a lot about the Sustainable Development Goals which were launched in late September. As an organisation that seeks to address issues of poverty, inequality and social development, we are both impressed by the scope of the SDGs and a little frustrated that they are needed at all. However, we are supportive of the initiative and we believe they will engender positive change. In fact, as readers of this blog will know, we are of the opinion that sport has, or should have, a powerful influence on meeting the 17 intended outcomes of the SDGs. The Kick Project's founder, James Rose, wrote a comment piece for Online Opinion, which we hope will make a contribution to the examination of the relationship between sport and the SDGs. You can read the full article here .

Pic: ESPNFC The Economist magazine ran an interesting feature article to mark the occasion of Queen Elizabeth II's now record reign. The story looked at aspects of UK politics and its social and economic history and highlighted the enormous differences found in the country as it was in 1952, when she ascended to the throne. The city of Leicester, home of Leicester City FC, was featured as a town that has experienced huge changes in that time. "Today Leicester is Britain's first big settlement with a non-white majority," said the article's writer. What is really interesting about this fact is the performance of Leicester City in the EPL. Currently sitting in 5th, above big guns like Liverpool, Spurs and Chelsea, the Foxes are one of the more dynamic squads in the league this year. They are playing an exciting brand of attacking football, some old school touches like flying wing backs and out and out wingers, they are near the top of the goals scored li...

While The Kick Project welcomes the  decision to remove ex-FIFA Vice-President  and head of CONCACAF, Jack Warner from any official role in the world football family, we would caution that this is not enough. While Mr Warner appears to have dragged the game through the mud in the quest for personal aggrandisement, we feel his story should not be allowed to act as a diversion nor should he be a sacrificial lamb. By all accounts, FIFA corruption goes deeper than even Mr Warner's voluminous pockets. FIFA claims that "In his positions as a football official, he was a key player in schemes involving the offer, acceptance, and receipt of undisclosed and illegal payments, as well as other money-making schemes," But Mr. Warner took himself out of FIFA four years ago and resigned all his official positions. It's no surprise he is non-plussed by the ban. He is  reported to have said on Facebook , "if in September 2015 (some 4 years and 5 months after) the FIFA wants ...