Scottish co-op launches Fairtrade football campaign
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Version 0 of 1. A Scottish co-operative which aims to improve the lives of often exploited factory workers in Pakistan has launched a crowdfunding campaign to help it import thousands of Fairtrade footballs. Glasgow-based Bala Sport has raised over £80,000 from supporters, who in return receive membership of the organisation and the right to vote on the future of the business. But it still has nearly £70,000 to raise before hitting its £150,000 goal. The group, whose name means “ball” in Gaelic and “strength” in Punjabi, works with manufacturers in the northern Pakistani city of Sialkot, close to the border with the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, where around 70% of the world’s hand-stitched footballs are made. Around 40,000 people work in the city’s ball-making industry, producing tens of millions of footballs every year for multinational companies including Adidas, which provided the official ball of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. But while ball-making is a pillar of Sialkot’s economy (the town also specialises in making surgical instruments), the industry has long faced criticism over low pay and poor working conditions. In 2006, Nike terminated a production deal with a local manufacturer over “significant labour compliance violations” and possible use of child labour. And while factories operate under an agreement designed to prevent underage working, concerns remain over the treatment of employees, who are paid an average annual wage of around £700. Bala Sport’s co-founder, Angus Coull, visited Sialkot in 2014. He said he’d found vast differences between factories: We visited four factories producing balls under Fairtrade agreements. You could see that they had fire escapes, fire extinguishers, health and safety notices, proper ventilation and everything you’d expect to find in a UK factory. The workers had face masks and eye protection. But when we went to another factory there was nothing like that. It was underground in the basement of a building, and the only ventilation was from holes in the ceiling.” Coull argued that in a sport where top players can earn tens of millions of pounds per year, governing bodies also had a clear moral responsibility to protect low-paid workers: With the ongoing backlash against Fifa, the time is right to change the whole way football is run. It’s time to re-evaluate the ethics of the game. The SFA has an equity policy all about fairness and respect for players and fans. It’s a very good document as far is it goes, so why not extend it to the men and women who make the crucial bit of kit for the game?” Established in February 2015, Bala Sport pays a 10% premium on manufacturing costs designed to give workers’ families access to healthcare and education. The group has already sold thousands of footballs around the country, Coull added, where there were only around 80 Fairtrade footballs in the whole of the UK when he started. Generating demand has been difficult, Coull said. While the bulk of orders have come from schools and ethically-minded consumers on Bala’s website, and while Fairtrade tea, coffee, sugar and coffee are now mainstream, mass market products, sports shops have been reluctant to stock the balls. The biggest problem we’ve had has been price. If you have a big chain selling two balls for £6.99, we’re not going to try to compete with that, because the people who suffer are the men and women who make the balls. There’s also the fact that a lot of customers in these stores walk in already knowing what they want. They’re after a Nike or a Mitre ball, and the shop staff don’t have the time to explain to them what a Fairtrade ball is all about. And then finally there’s a perception that because something’s Fairtrade, it’s probably a bit crap. People think that it’s a worthy cause, but that the product’s not that good. That does annoy me, because our Pro ball is manufactured and tested to Fifa professional standards.” While the absence of a major retail distribution deal has been a setback, Coull said Bala’s crowdfunding campaign could allow the business to grow while staying true to its values. “We don’t want to have a handful of fat cats who get to control the shots,” he said, adding that investors so far included schools in Paisley, Renfrewshire and Irvine, North Ayrshire. Another high-profile supporter has been FC United of Manchester - the fan-owned football club set up by Manchester United fans disillusioned by the team’s purchase by American sports tycoon Malcolm Glazer. The club’s general manager Andy Walsh said that as a community co-operative project, Bala had much in common with the team. We were delighted to be using footballs which are ethically sourced and produced. The Bala Sport balls we used for the FC United v Benfica match are made and tested to the same specifications as FIFA Approved balls and are also competitively priced. If it was our decision alone and we weren’t bound by league sponsorship deals for balls, we would use Bala balls for all of our teams and all of our matches. It’s a quality product, our players like using them, and it’s making a real difference to the workers who make them. Our women’s team will be using Bala balls this season and we’ll use them whenever we can in our community activities.” |