FIFA YOUTH PROGRAMME
Photo: Action Images
FIFA Youth Programme makes dreams come true
Coming face to face with international football stars is the biggest dream of any child, and for close to
4,000 children next summer, this dream can come true at the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™.
The kids that form the FIFA Youth Programme all play an integral part of the game, whether as part of
the pre-match line-up ceremony, such as with the Player Escorts and Flag Bearers, or to make matches
run like clockwork, such as with the Ball Crew kids. Altogether, 60 children participate in each match,
with 22 chosen to be Player Escorts, 14 to be the Ball Crew, 12 to be the two sets of National Flag
Bearers, 6 to be FIFA Fair Play Flag Bearers and 6 to be FIFA Flag Bearers. For the FIFA Confederations
Cup, the youngsters have all been recruited from different regions all around South Africa and for the
FIFA World Cup next year, FIFA’s sponsor family will be recruiting children from all around the world.
The children involved in the youth programme are from between six and eighteen years old,
depending on their selected duty: the Player Escorts range from six to ten years old whereas the Ball
Crew members are from twelve to eighteen.
The youth programme has been a regular fixture in every FIFA competition since the 1998 FIFA World
Cup, and demonstrates the importance FIFA places on enabling children to connect with football,
even from an early age and regardless of gender.
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Coca-Cola Ball Crew
The Ball Crew’s main responsibility is to retrieve balls going out of the field of play at all FIFA World
Cup matches. While doing so, they also must ensure the most uninterrupted flow of play possible,
which makes them too key players in the competition.
• 14 kids per match
• 15 to 18 years old
• Recruited internationally
Kids at the FIFA Confederations Cup were recruited through local schools and youth football clubs as
well as via a special selection process within SOS Children’s villages throughout South Africa.
McDonald’s Player Escorts
• 22 kids per match (11 per team)
• 6 to 10 years old
The 6-10 year olds walk onto the pitch hand-in-hand with their football idols. McDonald’s will recruit
1408 kids to be Player Escorts for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ alone. To give more kids the chance to
participate, there are always new kids per match.
For the FIFA Confederations Cup, kids were given a chance to win a spot on the Player Escort roster
via in-store promotions, such as Happy Meal and tray liner entry forms as well as through Radio & TV
promotions, enticing kids to go enter in stores.
FIFA Fair Play Flag Team activated by adidas
These flag bearers carry the yellow FIFA Fair Play Flag on to the pitch during the line-up ceremony in
front of the competing teams while the FIFA anthem plays.
• 6 kids per match
• 12 to 16 years old
Kids for the FIFA Confederations Cup were recruited primarily through in-store promotions, whereby
kids could complete entry forms including a short essay question asking why they wanted to share the
pitch with their football heroes, with a small number also drawn from a partner township locally.
Coca-Cola National Flag Team
These flag bearers carry the two competing national teams’ flags on to the pitch during the line-up
ceremony in front of the competing teams and referees.
• 12 kids per match (6 per Flag)
• 12 to 18 years old
For the FIFA Confederations Cup, kids were selected through a promotion that aired on SABC Radio,
SABC TV and in Spar in-store promotions.
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FIFA Flag Team activated by Sony
These flag bearers carry the blue FIFA Flag on to the pitch during the line-up ceremony in front of the
competing teams while the FIFA anthem plays.
• 6 kids per match
• 13 to 16 years old
At the FIFA Confederations Cup, four kids per match were recruited through an essay contest
conducted in local schools. An additional two kids per match were chosen through a sticker collection
campaign in the Daily Star, a national South African newspaper.
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The Youth Programme would be impossible to implement without FIFA’s Sponsor Family, and
specifically a select group comprised of adidas, Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Sony. Running promotions
to select the children, arranging for their travel to and from matches, providing uniforms and catering
and then training and monitoring the kids on-site is an enormous logistical exercise, primarily because
of the huge number of people involved. The fact that McDonald's received more than 2,000
applications for the 2009 edition of the FIFA Confederations Cup for the 352 spots as Player Escorts
speaks volumes for these coveted positions.
Every application has to be scrutinised for suitability based on qualifications and age. This process
alone requires many hours of examination. Therefore, FIFA Sponsors have special project teams
devoted solely to managing each of their respective youth programmes.
The FIFA Youth Programme calls for a lot of organisation before and during the game. All kids come
to the stadium over 5 hours prior to Kick Off each match day for a general training session, with the
members of the Ball Crew completing an additional and specialized training day several days before
their assigned match. Children are always accompanied by their chaperones. For the hours between
the match day rehearsals and the actual time to enter the pitch, the kids are entertained by the FIFA
Sponsors’ project teams, who provide for not only outdoor football matches (where space allows) but
also indoor games such as table soccer, PlayStation3 and other board games, with all equipment being
provided for free by the sponsors. Additionally, all food and beverages for the entire group of kids is
part of the sponsors’ engagement.
Photo: Action Images
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