Festival of Football to headline in France
Get your boots ready and your calendar marked off because your 2019 is going to be all about breaking a football Guinness World Record!
So far more than 500 of you (including 63 different nationalities) have already told us you are keen to play and very soon you will be able to officially register for the World’s Biggest Game in Lyon, France in 2019!
Registration will open in the next few weeks but we know you might have some questions about the match and the broader Festival of Football so read on and get excited.
First off, when is it again?
We kick off in Lyon at 8am, Thursday June 27 and will carry on playing until Monday July 1 when we think we will run out of players…
So, what are the rules of this crazy game?
The World Record Game is a standard exhibition match – but there are a few changes. For one – it doesn’t last 90 minutes, it carries on until we run out of players. We estimate it will last 5 days, continuing non-stop day and night. But so that we can organise more than 3000 of you, we will curate it into roughly 30-minute sections or “mini-games”. In total we will have more than 270 mini-games within the World Record Game.
How long will I get to play?
Participants have to be on the pitch for at least 10 minutes and touch the ball once for you to count as having played in the World Record. But we want most of you to play for at least 30 minutes.
From 7 am – 9 pm, mini-games will last 30 minutes and from 9pm – 7am, mini-games will last an hour so you’ll get longer to play. You have to be 18 or over to play overnight.
What happens if I’m on my own or don’t have a full team?
If you haven’t got a full-team, we will connect you with similar ability players to form a whole team to play with. Wildcard!
As in normal FIFA rules, teams must have a minimum of 7 players on the pitch at any one time. We are asking teams to sign up with 11 players to ensure we’re covered with any dropouts!
I’m a beginner. Am I going to be playing against the professionals?
We want everyone to have a great experience so we’re going to match teams and players roughly by ability. Whatever your level, you’ll have the chance to play against another team from around the world. And at the same time, who knows, a pro player might pop onto the pitch while you’re playing. When else can you say you’ve played in a game with and against some of the world’s greatest players!?
What do we need to wear?
We will provide you with a limited edition short-sleeve shirt and socks for the World Record game. You will be asked to bring black shorts/ leggings and your own shoes (we’ll be confirming the surface in early-2019).
How much does it cost to enter?
The registration fee of 45 EUR (~ 52 USD) covers playing in the World Record Game as well as a limited edition World Record kit (shirt and socks) and selected workshops within the wider Festival of Football.
How do I register to be part of this awesomeness?
In early January we’ll be opening the official registration system. You’ll be able to register as an individual or a team and choose a 4-hour time slot within which to play.
You’ll also be able to choose your shirt and sock size, tag your social media handles if you want the world to know you’re making history and get your unique identifier for the game.
Our team will struggle to get there without financial assistance, what can we do?
We hope that most teams will be able to ask for sponsorship in their local communities, but we will also be connecting teams with funders in a variety of areas:
- Firstly, we have put together a fundraising pack to help you start your own crowdfunding campaign. We will make that available by the time registration goes live.
- We are also pairing teams who can fundraise with teams who need support, especially those from developing countries. If you are a club that would love to fundraise for a sister club from another country, please get in touch!
- We are also connecting with NGOs and Government funding to support some teams. Get in touch with us if we haven’t already spoken to you about how we can help connect you to the right people.
This all sounds amazing, what else is happening?
The World Record Game takes place within a larger 5-day Festival of Football. We asked you what you would like to do at the Festival and you answered.
- A lot of you (surprise surprise) want to play more football! So, we will run a tournament each day for teams to play against each other from around the world. Prizes will be epic.
- We will also run some casual matches brokering games between teams. (We expect there will be a small charge for the tournament and casual games to cover pitch fees.)
You were also keen on some workshops so we’re putting together a programme to truly inspire and educate over the five days in Lyon. We’ll be asking you for more details early next year…
- We will run a number of hands-on workshops and training sessions on things such as coaching girls, using football as a tool for refugee integration, promoting your club in the media and much more!
- We are going to host a conference during the time that will be a chance to debate and discuss some of the big issues around women’s football.
- Finally, we’re working with other organisations to give you access to a film festival of football in the city that invented film and we’re working with photographers who are running exhibitions on women’s football.
You can stay for as long or as little as you want and we will share more information soon.
Finally, remember we are doing all of this during the Women’s World Cup, so make sure to see if you can get tickets to any of the games before or after you play. Check out the FIFA World Cup page here for more details.
Um, amazing. What are you doing between now and June 2019?
As well as World Records, we support local organisations to run football camps specifically for women and girls. We have over 40 organisations around the world running football camps for approximately 4000 women and girls before June 2019.
What can I do to help you?
So glad you asked.
We want to be able to support players from around to come to the Festival.
There are a number of ways you can help.
- Tell the world about it! Find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and give us a shout out. Tag us in any photos so we can follow-you back. Tweet this to let people know you’re coming!
- If your team wants to fundraise for a sister team, let us know so we can connect you. See below on how this partnership is working out for a girls football club in India called Yuwa.
- If you know any sponsors that could be interested in supporting the Festival please connect us to them. We have regional and global partnerships to enable participation in the Festival of Football.
- Are you technology-minded? We’re thinking of creating an app for the Festival. Let us know if you can help us do it.
Who are you again?
The team from Equal Playing Field! We love bringing amazing women together and breaking football World Records and this is the largest one yet. Find out more about our work here.
How can I get a hold of your amazing Equal Playing Field gear before the game?
As mentioned before, game kits will be provided for you at the time of the event. However, if you just can’t wait to start repping Equal Playing Field (who doesn’t?!), we have some cool new merchandise available for you! Check it out on the link here.
If there is anything else that you are dying to know and is not mentioned here, please check out our other FAQs or send an email to hello@equalplayingfield.com
