The London Stadium is set to host the 20th edition of Soccer Aid, a charity football match supporting the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Billed as “the world’s biggest celebrity football match,” the event will be broadcast live on ITV. Soccer Aid has raised more than £120 million for UNICEF since it began in 2006.
Echoes of Sport Aid’s Legacy
Forty years prior, the BBC cleared its Sunday schedule to cover a UNICEF-supported event, touted by organisers as potentially surpassing the Olympics or the World Cup in scale. This event, known as “The Race Against Time”, was the highlight of “Sport Aid”, a series of events aimed at famine relief. Bob Geldof and Chris Long, a marketing specialist and environmentalist, organised the event.
Sport Aid came in the summer of 1986, following the “Live Aid” concerts of 1985. ‘Sport Aid’ featured all-star exhibitions in various sports in the year after the ‘Live Aid’ concerts, including ‘The Race Against Time’ which saw an estimated 20 million people run worldwide.
The Impact of Famine Relief Efforts
The impetus for these events came from Michael Buerk’s BBC News report on the famine in Ethiopia in 1984. Geldof, deeply moved by the report, collaborated with Midge Ure to write “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” The song featured a collection of British pop artists known as “Band Aid”.
Geldof reflected on the participatory nature of Sport Aid: “It’s one thing to ask people to watch a pop concert, it’s another thing to ask people to get out and run. You can affect the world you live in,”.
Global Participation and Support
Sudanese Olympic runner Omar Khalifa initiated “The Race” by lighting a torch at the El Moweilih relief camp. He met with Pope John Paul II in Rome and also with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Khalifa also had an audience at Buckingham Palace with the Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales.
- ‘Sport Aid’ featured all-star exhibitions in various sports.
- An estimated 20 million people ran worldwide as part of “The Race Against Time”.
- Tears for Fears reworked their hit “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” to support the cause.
Tears for Fears reworked their hit “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” with altered lyrics for Sport Aid. The promotional video included Geldof, Frank Bruno, Olympic javelin champion Tessa Sanderson, swimmer Duncan Goodhew, England’s 1986 World Cup squad, and cameos from Carl Lewis and Sir Peter Ustinov.
In Cardiff, New Zealand, competing as “Korus,” won an international sevens rugby tournament as part of the Sport Aid events.
As Soccer Aid prepares for its 20th year, it continues the legacy of Sport Aid in supporting UNICEF.