From 21 young people to FIFA

Dear FIFA,

We are writing to you as young people who love football.

Not just the big tournaments, but everything around it too. The local teams. The friendships. The families on the sidelines. The feeling of belonging somewhere.

Football gives children and young people confidence. It brings communities together. It teaches fairness, teamwork and respect without needing to say the words out loud.

That is what sport, and the 2026 FIFA World Cup, means to us.

Yet more and more, the spaces we love are filled with advertising and sponsorship from junk food and drink companies. And lately, many young people have started asking the same question:

Because sometimes it feels like the joy, energy and community that football creates are being used to sell products that do not have our best interests at heart. The foods that you promote don’t fuel our game, they make us sick. And the companies that promote them do not often play fair.

We grow up seeing these brands everywhere in football, around the pitch, on our screens, on the shirts of players we look up to, until it starts to feel like they are part of the game itself.

But football should be about people first.

• About community.
• About friendship.
• About confidence.
• About joy.
• About belonging.

We want a future where the world’s biggest football tournaments reflect the values they inspire in children and young people every day. A future where children grow up associating football with fair play, friendship and community, not unhealthy food and drink brands.

So this is our message to you:

Help create a game that reflects the values we are taught every time we step onto a pitch: fairness, respect, community and care for one another.

It is time to kick junk food and drink marketing out of football, and give the game back to young people and communities.