Why Kitmas was a timely reminder of football’s power to do good

Lionel Messi’s coronation in Qatar was undoubtedly an iconic moment.

But this year’s World Cup will be remembered by many for all the wrong reasons, tainted by the treatment of migrant workers, human rights abuses and allegations of widespread corruption.

Football has the power to do so much good around the world. Increasingly though, its decision makers and their geopolitics are failing the communities they exist to serve. 

Back home, Kitmas returned for its third and perhaps most important year yet. It was the perfect antidote to the preposterous spectacle in the desert, set against a desperate cost of living crisis.

It began with a simple idea to support young football fans at Christmas, inspired by a box of 10 shirts in a garage.

Lizzie and Paul Watson, brother Mark and friend Vix Leyton wanted to make sure that kids were able to receive the present of a football jersey, regardless of their family’s financial situation.

It’s time, again, for Kitmas. This beautiful scheme devised by my brother gives out football shirts to underprivileged kids. All information at https://t.co/SEe1aJCqGF but this sexy video brings the appeal to life. pic.twitter.com/CP3OhnBPbA

— Mark Watson (@watsoncomedian) November 15, 2022

It has now raised more £60,000 around the world, capturing the imagination of football clubs and supporter organisations, our funding partners and high-profile fans along the way.

The grassroots campaign has worked with 22 community hubs and charities around the UK, supporting more than 5,000 families to date.

It has been backed by the Football Supporters Association (FSA) with clubs such as Bristol City, Forest Green Rovers, Exeter City, Cheltenham Town, Frome Town and Goal Diggers FC getting involved. Premiership rugby side Bristol Bears played their part, too.

Cheltenham Town alone raised more than £5,000, inviting their commercial partners to work alongside their fans and make a real difference to 200 local families this Christmas. They added prize incentives to encourage people to take part and used players to distribute the presents.

It led to a feature by the English Football League (EFL), celebrating how football communities came together this winter. ITV will include a package in their Boxing Day highlights programme.

Sports Interactive, the company behind the popular Football Manager game and shirt sponsors at fan-owned AFC Wimbledon, added their backing.

And over in Canada there is a growing movement, led by the team behind the Soccer Snobs podcast. They raised almost $8,500 after gifting more than 1,000 shirts last year. It follows the country’s first appearance at a World Cup finals since 1986.

Kitmas has caught the imagination of the national media as well as our extra funding partners. Last year the National Emergencies Trust pledged £11,000 while this time around, our Cost of Living Emergency Fund added £1,000 to the cause.

Our team recently recorded the moment they discovered the news, meaning a further 100 young fans would receive a present this year.

The campaign’s growing profile led to TV host and comedian James Corden – an ardent West Ham United fan – donating £2,000 of his own money to strengthen this year’s campaign while leaving a message of support (below).

Gary Lineker tweeted his admiration, too. Moments like that add a huge slice of validation for Lizzie, Paul, Mark and Vix’s simple idea. That’s the power of Crowdfunder, and we’ve seen it with thousands of brilliant community led campaigns across the board. It brings people together around a shared purpose.

So Kitmas is one in the eye for the game’s egomaniacs, dominating our TV screens in the past month.

What’s next? Well for starters, a hard earned break for the Watsons. Then next year we’d love to see dozens of clubs run their own campaigns, following in the footsteps of the ones we’ve already mentioned. Doing that will ease the pressure on Paul and Lizzie and propel the campaign to new communities in 12 months time.

It’s not just about football. Rugby clubs have taken part this time and it would be great to see different sorts of organisations build fundraisers, creating meaningful fan engagement in their sporting communities.

And at some point in the future we could see Kitmas become a matchfunding partner in itself, using their donations to incentivise communities to come together through the initiative. 

We know for example that for every pound our friends at Sport England put through our platform, the ‘crowd’ adds a further £2.15, resulting in an amplification of 315%.

It’s all part of the Crowdfunder journey, and Kitmas is just getting started.