The Prime Minister and leaders from South Africa, Spain, and the Netherlands will today join with footballers and FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter to pledge their support to provide an education for every child.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown will lend his support to the 1GOAL campaign in London, where he will be joined by Queen Rania and footballing legends Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Sir Bobby Charlton.

• Sign up to support the 1GOAL campaign
  

Speaking before the event the Prime Minister said: "The World Cup focuses global attention unlike any other tournament, and next year's - the first ever held on African soil - provides an unprecedented opportunity to use that focus to leave a lasting legacy.

“It's an outrage that 35m African children miss out on a basic primary education, tackling that would be an incredible achievement. That is why I am delighted that global leaders, some of the world's best footballers and ordinary people from every continent have come together back 1GOAL.

“I am today urging all world leaders to sign up to this campaign and promise to make next year an historic turning point."

England star Rio Ferdinand, supporting the event, said: “I believe every child has the right to an education and that’s why I’m supporting 1GOAL and asking football fans around the world to join today.”

Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan said: “This is our chance to show not just out-of-school children, but our own children, that when we make a promise, we keep it.  That’s why I’m proud to be the co-founder and global co-chair of 1 GOAL. That’s why I welcome global leaders who have the courage to live up to their aid commitments."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: “Today, there are boys and girls around the world dreaming about their futures. Education is their gateway to opportunity, it lifts people out of poverty and strengthens families, communities and countries. That’s why I’m pleased to join FIFA and so many other leaders around the world to launch the 1GOAL Campaign.  Let’s make the World Cup an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to Education for All.”

The 1GOAL campaign, which aims to make education the lasting legacy of the first World Cup in Africa, will hear via live satellite link-up from world leaders of the importance of achieving education for all. The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the leaders of Brazil and Ghana have made pre-recorded statements in support of the campaign, which will also air.

Speaking ahead of the launch, Joseph S. Blatter said: “It is an immense honour for FIFA to gather around football’s force for change, so many political leaders of today’s world and so many football legends, all motivated by solidarity and a strong desire for action. The FIFA World Cup 2010, the first one to be held on the African continent, represents an unique opportunity to mobilize energies around the globe to provide education and thus a better future for every child of our planet. The 1Goal education campaign should become the rallying point of concrete commitments by governments, investors and individuals to be true to our values of universality and to the values of football, an amazing school of life, with 2015 as the target date of this historic campaign!”

The 1GOAL campaign is aiming to recruit tens of millions of supporters through a mass sign up campaign to achieve a school place for the 75 million children out of school globally, pushing for:

• Governments to give more aid to for education – an extra $7bn is needed – and stand by their current pledges
• Greater investment for more teachers, textbooks and schools in developing countries
• The millions of people in the developing world to understand the importance of sending their children to school

Notes for Editors

Press Contacts:

Taylor Royle, +1 202 258 3508, Taylor@campaignforeducation.org
Ravi Matharu, +44 (0)7533 631 335, ravi@campaignforeducation.org
Ben Burton, +44 20 3047 2069, Ben.Burton@edelman.com

Notes to editors:

1 – Players from all over the world are joining the effort including Rio Ferdinand, Thierry Henry, Robinho, Michael Essien, Aaron Mokoena (captain of the South Africa team), Kanu (captain of the Nigerian team), Nicolas Anelka, Michel Silvestre, David James, Kolo Toure, Javier Zanetti, Ivan Cordoba, Michael Owen and Mia Hamm (captain of the 1999 American women’s World Cup champion team). Retired champions also joining 1GOAL include Marcel Desailly, Gary Lineker, George Weah and Roger Milla.

In addition to support from players, actors Jessica Alba, Kevin Spacey and Clive Owen, singer Kelly Rowland, U2 lead singer and ONE co-founder Bono and non-profit organizations Global Campaign for Education, Comic Relief and advocacy group One have promised their commitment.  

2- The 1GOAL campaign will push education towards the top of the agenda at major international meetings between now and the Millennium Development Goal Summit in September 2010. EU, G8 and G20 meetings will take place during the World Cup itself.  The campaign aims to generate commitments to increase funding for education, greater investment in teachers and target ways to spread education programmes in hard-to-reach communities.  It will use the 2010 FIFA World Cup to get the message across to football fans and others of the importance of sending children to school.

3 -   Giving children an education has been shown to help a country’s reach its full potential. Studies have shown getting girls into school is the one of the best investments a country can make. A girl who has been educated is 50% more likely to have her child immunised, and her children are more than twice as likely to live until the age of five.

4 – The 1GOAL campaign builds on the work of the Class of 2015, which was launched at the United Nations in September 2007 with the aim of getting all children an education by 2015. The Class of 2015 is comprised of the Global Campaign for Education, charities, governments, and national and international organisations which support free primary schooling for everyone.

5 – The 1GOAL campaign is backed by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE), the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), governments across the world, charities and international organisations.

6- Join 1GOAL at www.join1goal.org or follow at www.twitter.com/join1goal

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