Soccer is the world’s most popular game, and in recent years, it has enjoyed a rapid ascendancy as a competitive sport among U.S. schoolchildren. But just who is stitching those popular black –and- white leather spheres rolling across the world’s soccer fields? Most people are unaware that Pakistani children the same ages as little "Darcy" and "Justin" have factory jobs producing the soccer balls, instead of participating in their own soccer leagues.

"Soccer balls, like many pieces of sports equipment, are often made under the worst human working conditions," explained Mark Ritchie, president of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP). Sweatshops, child labor and even forced labor conditions are typical.

Of the 40 million children in Pakistan, 3.3 million between the ages of 5 and 14 are forced to work in various agricultural and/or urban-industrial settings. According to the 2002 study "Labour Standards in the Sporting Goods Industry: A Case for Corporate Social Responsibility" conducted by the Volunteers for Social Justice in India, 46 percent of these children are working 35 more hours per week; another 25 percent work 56 more hours per week.

The same study revealed that women are forbidden employment in stitching centers that do provide adult male counterparts benefits such as overtime, bonuses and health checkups.

Aware of this situation, the Fair Trade organization in Sweden worked to establish proper standards for fair prices, fair wages and social awareness. They sought like-minded groups, such as the village of Sialkot, Pakistan, that wanted to be certified fair trade. IATP began to communicate with Sialkot’s sporting goods manufacturing representatives as part of the run-up to IATP’s World’s Fair Trade Fair in Cancun during the World Trade Organization meeting in September of 2003.

IATP has been deeply immersed in the fair trade arena for more than a decade, including the introduction of fair trade labeling for food products under the Transfair label into the USA and the creation of Peace Coffee, one of the fastest growing sellers of certified fair trade coffee in the country. Given the coffee’s warm reception, he sought to find out if there were a market for other fair trade products, like soccer balls. The response he received: "Yes! Is this possible? Can we get these tomorrow? And can you put our school’s name on balls ?" Clearly, people want to see that their sports-spending makes a positive global impact.

Peace Coffee is selling Fair Trade soccer balls. Click here to find out more.

Note: This article adapted from The Mix Newsletter.

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