European football leagues to red-card world hunger in UN campaign

Blowing yellow whistles, European football players, coaches and referees at 292 professional clubs will this weekend urge millions of fans filling 146 stadiums to sign a United Nations petition to pressure governments into giving top priority to eliminating world hunger.

With hunger currently afflicting 925 million people worldwide, the European Professional Football Leagues event will give the scourge the red card in support of ‘The 1billionhungry project,’ a global outreach initiative of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The campaign’s symbol is blowing yellow whistles, signifying that it is time to stop the widespread suffering caused by chronic hunger. To date, more 1.5 million people have signed the petition, FAO said in a news release today.

The inclusion of the Russian football federation makes this year’s Match Day Against Hunger a truly pan-European event. In Spain, all players, including Uruguayan World Cup Golden Ball winner Diego Forlan, Spanish World Champion Iker Casillas and Argentine striker Lionel Messi, will enter the stadiums wearing T-shirts bearing the symbol of the campaign and blowing yellow whistles.

In Italy, all team captains and referees will wear the yellow whistle. At matches played in Netherlands as well as at the Bayern Muenchen versus Hamburg game in Germany, a ball will be signed by all the players and the referee will blow the yellow whistle at kick-off and during the game.

The event is just the latest collaboration between multiple sports organizations and individual teams and players and various UN agencies to promote their humanitarian agendas.