PLAY FOR GOAL 14
LIFE BELOW WATER

Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.

• Protecting biodiversity and marine sites is vital to building and sustaining coastal communities.
• By 2000, 1.9 % of coastal and marine areas were protected.
• By 2014, 8,4 % of coastal and marine areas were protected.
  By 2020, prevent any further losses to marine biodiversity.
• By 2030, we’ll have reduced the pollution in our oceans and all coastal and marine areas are protected.

Oceans provide key natural resources including food, medicines, biofuels and other products. They help with the breakdown and removal of waste and pollution, and their coastal ecosystems act as buffers to reduce damage from storms. Maintaining healthy oceans supports climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts.

by Becca Todd, United Kingdom

Description of the game

• Defenders represent pollution.
• Players running across are representing fish.
• One defender at the start and this slowly builds up as the defender tackles more and more fish. Therefore showing pollution getting worse and worse until there are no fish left in the sea.

by Steven O’Reilly, Chelsea FC Foundation, Bangkok

Description of the game

• Players represent either turtles or plastic bags. The field represents the ocean.
• The turtle players must dribble the balls from one end of the ocean to the other with out hitting a plastic bag.
• Last turtle wins.

by Nina Frausing, Brøndby, Denmark

Description of the game

• The emphasis of this exercise is to act as animals below water that don’t utilize hands and arms as we do.

How To Play

• Divide the teams into two (green and pink) with one goalkeeper in goal.
• Place a ball approx.. 20 meters from the players and shot distance from goal.
• The two players will lay on their backs with their hands placed on their stomach (Coach can also use a bib-shirt to tie the hands together)
• When the coach says go, the players will try to get up as fast as possible, but WITHOUT using their arms or hands. It is to act as fish or other animals below water.
• Once up, the players will run to the ball and try to be the first one to score, again with no hands or arms involved.
• The goalkeeper is also not allowed to use hands or arms to defend.
• Once scored, two new players lay down with their hands tied.
• Coach can change the starting position so players lay on their stomachs, sit down etc.

ORGANISATION

• Players: This game could be run with numbers of players depending on the field size.
• Area: Any size that you have can work.
• Materials: Balls.
• Level: Everyone can have fun with this.

There are so many great ways to create a game. Allow the players to be quite creative with this by introducing the goal at the beginning of the match and asking them how this could be included:  Do one team have a big goal and the other a small. Do everybody play with a glas of water or change a rule every minute. 

A simple way to bring in the Global Goals when playing a match, is that every time a team scores or make a save, or during a water break they can double their points or get a point by stating a Global Goal and what they could do to help promote this in their community. Easiest to play small side games with 3-6 players, so they can hear each other.

You can always have several games going at the same time. There are some rule ideas under Goal 17.

Our good friends at World’s Largest Lesson have done an amazing work developing educational material to every school children and young people in the world.