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In Goa, football stands for social justice and inclusivity thanks to The Forca Goa Foundation

With Jill Ferguson at Sunday’s match

Last week I was in Goa for both of FC Goa’s home matches and I had the pleasure of catching up with Jill Ferguson, Executive Director of the Forca Goa Foundation, FC Goa’s grassroots and social engagement NGO.

Jill exudes a winning combination of compassion and determination—you can really sense the sincerity of her commitment to the causes the foundation is championing when you talk to her.

Making football accessible to all and using the sport to unify communities have been central ideals since the Foundation’s inception, and this year, there are three exciting new developments in this regard that I was very impressed to learn about.

For starters, it has just become the first organization in India to switch to Fairtrade certified footballs.

Here on, the Foundation will only use Fairtrade footballs

“Football manufacturing internationally has had many problems with child labor in the past, and statistics show that as much as 70% of the balls being produced globally at one time used children in the hand sewing process,” Jill explained.

“At the Foundation we want to create opportunities that give all kids the chance to really be a kid and to play the game we love, but we never want that to be at the cost of another child,” she said.

Alongside using only Fairtrade footballs, the Forca Goa Foundation will also be conducting a series of workshops with their coaches and the kids they train on what Fairtrade means and why it matters.

Secondly, much to my delight, women’s football remains an important priority for the foundation.

The foundation empowers girls and women to play football

In addition to building on their Junior Gaur U12 girls league, a first of its kind in the state, they have also begun developing a full-scale women's program with the club.

This includes FC Goa having a women's team, which is currently competing in Goa's Vedanta Women's League, a regional competition ahead of the Indian Women’s League (IWL).

“We’re the only club in the Hero ISL with a women's program at the moment and we hope we can make it to IWL!” Jill shared excitedly.

FC Goa is currently the only ISL club with a women’s program

“Our women's national team is ranked 59th while our men's just reached 97 in the FIFA World Rankings. We would love to see an Indian team make it to the World Cup one day soon, so we feel we should be supporting and developing the game for everyone to help us get there,” she continued.

I couldn’t agree more. In further testimony to their commitment to inclusivity, the foundation has also formally signed an MOU with Bharat Special Olympics this year.

An MOU with Special Olympics reflects the foundation’s commitment to inclusivity

Special Olympics is an international body that organizes Olympic-type sports for people with intellectual disabilities, with a vision to ignite the human spirit through the transformative power and joy of sports, around the world.

As part of the MOU and to raise awareness about special needs athletes, the coaches from the Forca Goa Foundation will receive sensitization training, and in turn, they will assist and support the coaching activities conducted by Special Olympics Bharat.

In fact, to commemorate the initiative, an exhibition futsal match took place in August where several first team stars played in unified teams with special needs athletes.

As Jill said, “The foundation firmly believes in inclusive football and wants to make football accessible to everybody.”

From helping organize the state’s first blind football game, to this landmark MOU signing, “The hope is that more children from Goa get the opportunity to showcase their talent regardless of their gender or ability.”

Let’s hope we see more initiatives like this nationwide!