football_sialkot

www.fairtrade.org.uk/sportsballs

FAIR TRADE SPORTS BALLS (UNHEP)

www.select-sport.com

KS3 Citizenship – Fair Trade Video

Sialkot (Urdu: سیالکوٹ) is a city situated in the north-east of the Punjab province in Pakistan at the foothills of the snow-covered peaks of Kashmir near the Chenab river. It is the capital of Sialkot District and, formerly, it has been the winter-capital of the State of Kashmir. The city is about 125 km (78 mi) north-west of Lahore and only a few kilometres from Indian controlled Jammu. The recorded history of Sialkot covers thousands of years. Sialkot has, since its foundation, changed hands from Hindu, Buddhist, Persian, Greek, Afghan, Turk, Sikh and British rule to that of present-day Pakistan. Read More: > HERE <

Fair Trade is an organized social movement and market-based approach that aims to help producers in developing countries obtain better trading conditions and promote sustainability. The movement advocates the payment of a higher price to producers as well as social and environmental standards. It focuses in particular on exports from developing countries to developed countries, most notably handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, sugar, tea, bananas, honey, cotton, wine, fresh fruit, chocolate and flowers. Read More: > HERE <

An innovative company with history – SELECT Sport is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of hand-sewn balls and produces approx. 2 million balls a year. SELECT Sport is recognised as an innovator in quality balls and is represented by its own sales network or distributors in large parts of the world. We export to a total of more than 50 countries.

SELECT’s head office is located in Glostrup near Copenhagen. Our balls are produced in Pakistan by Anwar Khawaja Industries (AKI). We have never used child labour to produce our balls. SELECT’s workers and their families receive free medical assistance and medication through our SAHEP programme. This programme also provides education and schooling for all of the workers’ children.

 

A short look at how footballs are really made.

FIFA standard balls are hand-stitched in Pakistan for Fair Kick Soccer. In a size 5 ball, there are 690 stitches. As each of the five-sided pieces of polyurethane artificial leather are stitched to the others, the ball’s sphere gradually closes. The last stitches are done ‘blind’. That is, they use a pair of long needle-pullers, threading between stitches that they have already made, because they cannot get their hands inside the ball. At the same time, they have to be careful that they do not puncture the butyl air bladder inside. > http://de.fifa.com/<