The Greater Game
Aiming to improve the health and wellbeing of young people through football, inspiring them to make at least one healthier action per week
The Greater Game is a purpose-led programme which uses the power of football to improve the health and wellbeing of young people across the nation, inspiring them to make at least one healthier action per week.
Research conducted by The FA found that nearly a third (31%) of young people do not feel the need to exercise and over half (52%) have suffered from a mental health issue in the past year*. That’s why The Greater Game was created.
Aimed at 12-16s and those associated with this age group (parents, guardians, coaches, teachers, local communities and so on), it’s a long-term mission and we believe that using the power and scale of football we can make real change.
The Greater Game centres around four key elements: move; think; eat and sleep; encouraging 12-16 year olds to make one healthier action a week.
Our mission
When you’re young, staying physically and mentally healthy is easier said than done. Using the power of football, we want to create a movement which inspires the next generation to lead healthier, happier lives.
Less than half of 10-16-year-olds in the UK regularly exercise for an hour a day and 1 in 5 children leave primary school classified as obese. This could be for many reasons, but we believe that a combination of unhelpful social norms and the modern-day environment make it challenging for young people to make healthy choices and build good habits.
These factors make having good mental and physical health harder than it should be – which has a knock-on impact on their overall happiness, self-confidence, healthy living and ability to achieve their full potential (at school and beyond).
The focus of The Greater Game is to inspire this age group to move more to not only reap the benefits for their physical health, but for their mental health too.
Get Involved in The Greater Game
The Greater Game launches nationwide with resources that help everyone play their part in driving change, including a YouTube channel with content for young people, an online learning programme for Coaches and downloadable resources for parents.
* Research conducted by the FA with 1800 nationally representative 12-16-year-olds.