adidas commits to drive gender equality in football

adidas has unveiled the next step in its partnership with a global impact movement Common Goal aimed at driving gender equality in football by supporting grassroots initiatives that increase access to the sport for women and girls, on and off the pitch.

adidas’ commitment will see 1% of net sales of the official match balls from the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, Al Hilm and Al Rihla, contributed towards Common Goal’s ‘Global Goal 5 Accelerator’. It is a collective project to increase female participation, representation and leadership in the grassroots game. The programme focuses on increasing girls’ participation as well as the proportion of female coaches and female leaders in football for good community programmes helping to ensure that every girl participant has a female athlete role model in their community.

The announcement comes on a key moment in the football calendar. As one tournament comes to an end another appears on the horizon as the countdown to the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023 ramps up.

The investment will facilitate the expansion of the ‘Global Goal 5 Accelerator’ across Latin America, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Europe making a real impact for the game across the globe.

“As eyes turn to next summer’s main event, we want to help ensure that women and girls that are inspired to play are able to do so, by accelerating access at a grassroots level. After all football at the highest level starts with a ball kicked on a local pitch or street,” said Rachel Howard, Vice President, adidas Brand Emerging Markets. “We’re proud to support the incredible self-driven communities that are making incredible progress towards this vision. This support will be accelerated as we approach the tournament in Australia and New Zealand to capture the appetite to play we know it will inspire but it is a long-term commitment that will continue to deliver impact long after the tournament is over.”

“adidas’ commitment goes beyond what we believe is an important step for gender equity and in women’s football. It is about elevating the sport to be its best self and demonstrating what its legacy could be. We hope many other brands and stakeholders move in the same direction, enabling the world’s favourite sport to unleash its full potential,” added Jürgen Griesbeck, Co-Founder Common Goal.

adidas has been an impact sponsor of Common Goal since 2021 and this announcement is the latest initiative under the adidas Football Collective – a movement committed to creating change through sport. Through the adidas Football Collective the brand is joining forces with established community partners, activists and changemakers, as well as professional clubs and athletes – all to deliver real action. This is achieved through the deployment of resources to teams that give access where it isn’t readily available.