Sports is a recurring subject for GameChangers.  How can it not be, with our work so tightly bound to the playing of games?  All you have to do is thread back through this blog to see how many times sports and their players produce a ‘learnable moment’ that can be applied to business.  Most sports provide a useful model for how structure (e.g. the rules, roles, environment and objectives that constitute the game) liberate performance, creativity and innovation.

Sports is also a recurring theme for the culture and politics of the times.  There is a lot of meta meaning bound up in sports.  For example…

Jackie Robinson’s is the story of de-segregation, and of breaking through any significant barrier in your chosen profession.

Rudy is the story of anyone who has to overcome long odds to achieve a dream.

Esther Williams‘ and Johnny Weismuller’s stories are about the marriage of sports and entertainment.

The recent film, Invictus, starring Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman, is about a visionary who sees a way to resolve a serious conflict via the playing of a game.

The Invictus theme is more or less mirrors what The Ball is all about:  Beginning this Sunday, January 24, three football (soccer for us Yanks) enthusiasts, Christian Wach, Phillip Wake and Andrew Aris, will kick a football from Battersea Park in London, the site where modern soc– er, football began in 1864, to Johannesburg, South Africa, site of this year’s World Cup, the first ever held on the African continent.  Their trip will take five months, and will run through 25 countries and 10,000 miles.

GameChangers: On The Ball

The Ball is sponsored by DHL-Africa, Special Olympics-Africa, the Freestyle Football Federation (think of them as the Harlem Globetrotters of football), and Alive and Kicking, which distributes footballs to kids in poor villages around the world.  Alive and Kicking is donating 1,000 balls for the guys to distribute on their trip.  DHL is handling logistics, including ground transpo, express mail, visa approvals, border crossings and internet and mobile phone connectivity.  Africa 10, a documentary produced by Julian Cautherly and Will.I.Am of the Blackeyed Peas, has donated an HD camera and flash memory cards, and is co-hosting The Ball content on its website for the duration of the trip.  GameChangers is a patron, too.  Our role is to support the The Ball narrative.

At the January 24 kickoff, ‘The Beautiful Game’ will be played with ‘no rules’ (pre-1864 version of mayhem in the streets with a ball); ‘old rules’ (c. 1864 genteel and casual, if it strikes your fancy, smoke a pipe while you play); and ‘modern rules’ (the athletic, free-flowing game of today).  Following the kickoff event, Dan Magess of the Freestyle Football Federation will attempt to set a world record for ‘keepy-uppy’, keeping a football in the air without touching it with your hands.  Current record is over 23 hours.  And with that, The Ball will begin its journey to Jo-burg for the World Cup.

This will be the third and most ambitious World Cup journey for the group, which operates under a non-profit organization, Spirit of Football.   Wach and Wake kicked The Ball from London to Seoul in 2002 and London to Munich in 2006.  This is Aris’ first year with the group.

The meta story of The Ball is how a simple idea can sweep aside our differences, and lead the way toward a shared sense of purpose, and the pitch on which all can play.

Kick away, lads, kick away!