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Sarah Whale: ‘People who make Fairtrade balls earn an extra 20p’ |
Fan tackles club over balls made in Third World
Schoolgirl claims Gunners snubbed plea for switch to Fairtrade version
A SCHOOLGIRL Arsenal fan blew the whistle on her team this week for being “too high and mighty” to talk to her about the plight of Third World workers who make footballs.
Sarah Whale, 13, from Archway, asked to meet Arsenal officials to find out why the club cannot use Fairtrade footballs instead of the official Nike balls.
That was last May when she was working on a school geography project. But despite letters and phone calls to the Emirates Stadium she received little response.
Sarah, who attends King Alfred School in Hampstead, said: “Each of our class wrote to senior figures at clubs and at the English FA to ask them to buy professional-standard Fairtrade balls, which cost £35-£38 instead of about £60 for non-Fairtrade ones.
“The people who make Fairtrade balls earn an extra 20p per ball or 80p more per day.”
Three months after letters went out the class had received only three replies.
The FA said it had a contract with Nike so could not buy Fairtrade. It said Nike “meets all the regulations”, but did not say what that means.
Sarah added: “Someone from Alex Ferguson’s office [at Manchester United] wrote to say he was too busy to bother with such things.
“It’s sad that the people running the game seem to think they are too important to make sure everyone involved can afford enough to eat.”
Her mother, Kate Calvert, chairwoman of the Better Archway Forum, said: “It seems Arsenal decided that a meeting with a 13-year-old fan to discuss a way of improving life for those worse off than themselves was something they didn’t want to be bothered with.
“And because it would be embarrassing to say so, they have simply hoped that a fan of this age will give up and go away.”
For Sarah’s project, pupils had to look at how much children who make footballs are paid in the Third World.
A Tower Hill-based Fairtrade organisation, set up by charities, including Oxfam, aims to ensure workers in developing countries have fair pay and conditions and are not exploited.
Spokeswoman Martine Julseth said: “We welcome and support Sarah’s call for top teams like Arsenal to use our footballs.
“Even if the teams can’t use Fairtrade balls for big matches they could at least use them for reserve or youth team games. I understand a number of teams are exploring this idea. “
She claimed that Fairtrade balls, made in countries such as Pakistan, meet similar standards of quality as those from the main manufacturers.
Arsenal said this week that players need to use the same balls for training and matches. A spokeswoman added: “The team must use footballs stipulated by the FA – you should talk to them.” The FA told our reporter to talk to the Premier League.
A spokesman for the Premier League said: “We have a commercial agreement with Nike as our official ball supplier. This prohibits us from having an agreement with any other ball supplier.” |
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