ONE GOAL - The Project I Was Waiting For

A little over a year ago, I wrote a post about how the Budweiser 6v6 initiative my team and I were consulting for was the “perfect” project given the brilliant combination of football and beer.   At that time I was only half serious although I do enjoy getting paid to conceptualize events which integrate play and celebration throughout each touch point which is what we were able to deliver for that program.  

Now, we have been appointed as project managers for a new campaign which may have taken the pole position as the type of opportunity most closely aligned to my reason for moving to India.  Those who know me, know that although I’ve played, studied and worked in sports my entire life, I don’t necessarily enjoy watching and following sport as much as most people in the industry.  My reason for devoting most of my personal and professional life to this industry is because I truly love the social benefits which are associated with sport and I feel that I’m well qualified to serve people leveraging  football as the platform.  This is why I moved to India.

Our most recent opportunity is to serve as the project managers for the ONE GOAL campaign within India. ONE GOAL is the AFC's flagship social responsibility initiative which aspires to be a simple, powerful campaign that will mobilize and inspire the community of over 1.4 billion Asian football fans to take action for better child nutrition. ONE GOAL will raise awareness, scale up programmes and open up CSR funding streams through Asian football events, celebrity endorsement, viral messaging, digital giving and social media.

To sum the above up in my words, ONE GOAL is about leveraging football to reduce the alarming malnutrition and obesity rates in India while at the same time supporting the development of grassroots football in the country.

Last week, I had the incredible opportunity to attend the AFC Sports for Development conference in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam where I was able to interact with members of AFC and experts from all over the world representing the fields of nutrition, social development and football. Over the course of the conference, I learned more than I could ever imagine about nutrition and how other countries are using football as way to create social impact. I walked away from the conference with a whole new set of industry friends and even more motivated to make this campaign a success in India.

With friends from Street Football World, AFDP and AFC

With Jurgen (Founder, Street Football World) and Grenville (Operations Director, ONE GOAL)

Group shot with AFC General Secretary Alex Soosay

The ONE GOAL train continued as soon as I returned to India from Vietnam. Just a few days later my colleagues and I organized a ONE GOAL India roundtable discussion on football and nutrition in India.  It was hosted at the All India Football Federation house and the participants, who represented various organizations invested in football or social development, spent two days discussing how we can collaborate to link nutrition and football to build this campaign in our country.

Group shot after the ONE GOAL India workshop at Football House

So now I sit here reflecting on the madness of the last week where I was between Ho Chi Minh City and Delhi deeply entrenched in ONE GOAL yet feeling more energized than ever. Why? Because I always dreamed of leading a project which involved the following components - football, social responsibility, India impact and international travel – and that is exactly what ONE GOAL offers which is why it’s clearly the project I’ve been waiting for.