Football Remembers Week
'Football Remembers Week' will take place from 5-14 December. A joint collaboration between The FA, the Premier League, the Football League and the British Council, the aim is to engage football fans and players at every level about what took place on Christmas Day one hundred years ago on the battlefields in Belgium.
On 25 December 1914, soldiers from both sides put down their weapons and crossed into ‘no man’s land’ to share in an impromptu ceasefire. First-hand accounts from the time include references to football being played and photographs taken.
All photos uploaded to social media using #footballremembers will be automatically uploaded to a special website. The site shall act as a moment of record of football in 2014, a century on from the First World War, and will be preserved for future generations.
HRH The Duke of Cambridge, President of The FA, said: “It promises to be a powerful way to engage and educate young people about such an important moment in our history. We all grew up with the story of soldiers from both sides putting down their arms on Christmas Day, and it remains wholly relevant today as a message of hope over adversity, even in the bleakest of times.”
How it will work
For ALL matches taking place from 5-14 December, all players involved will pose together in a mixed group photograph as a mark of respect to those on both sides that took part in the 1914 Christmas Truce. Each home team should nominate someone to take the photo.
Fans, teams and schools will be asked to upload their pre-match pictures via social media over the course of Football Remembers Week. Any match of any size can be uploaded, from school to Sunday league fixtures, five-a-side matches to kickabouts in the back garden.
Those posting photos to social media should use #footballremembers to ensure it is uploaded to the special footballremembers.com website. Any other information is welcome.
The website shall act as a moment of record of football in 2014, a century on from the First World War, and will be preserved for future generations.
Football Remembers kicked off in May 2014 when the four partners launched a Football Remembers education pack that was sent to more than 30,000 schools across the UK. It includes resources to help children learn about the Truce – including eye-witness accounts, photos, drawings and letters from soldiers some of which have never been published before.
A key element of the Football Remembers education pack was a competition for schools and football academies to design a permanent Christmas Truce memorial for the National Memorial Arboretum. The competition was judged by HRH The Duke of Cambridge – President of The FA – and Arsenal and England forward Theo Walcott.
The winning design was drawn by 10 year-old Spencer Turner from Farne Primary in Newcastle, and he will attend a special service later in the year to mark the unveiling at the Arboretum, near St. George’s Park.
Other Football Remembers activity taking place between now and the end of 2014 includes:
UK Parliamentary Reception