August 21 – German World Cup Winner Mats Hummels has become the second footballer to pledge 1% of his salary to the Common Goal fund that will in turn distribute funds to football charities arounds the world.
Bayern Munich’s Hummels joins Manchester United’s Juan Mata who launched the fund raising with his own 1% salary pledge earlier this month.
Common Goal is the creation of NGO streetfootballworld and the brainchild of CEO Jürgen Griesbeck. streetfootballworld supports more than 120 football charities around the world, and states as an aim to unlock 1% of the estimated $30 billion revenue in football for its grassroots charities.
“Players are a great place to start because they’re the stars of the show,” said streetfootballworld CEO Jürgen Griesbeck. “But this is the first step of a giant global endeavour. Imagine the entire industry uniting in the name of social change. Together we can usher in a new era for football and forge a deeper sense of purpose at the heart of the game.”
The aim is to assemble a ‘Starting XI’ of likeminded players who make the 1% pledge and lead the movement forward.
“What we’re trying to do is define a shared social agenda for football,” said Mata. “Common Goal goes beyond individual brands and egos to deliver a greater impact. By making the pledge, we can form a lasting connection between football as a business and football as a tool for social change.”
Donations will be pooled into a collective fund, and then “distributed to high-impact football charities that tackle issues ranging from gender equality in India to peacebuilding in Colombia to refugee integration in Germany”, said a press release.
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