Sports balls
Overview
Football brings together fans and star players. Despite being a major global industry with an estimated revenue of US$1.75 billion in 2022, the production of footballs is not as glamorous for the factory workers and hand-stitchers who make them.
Football production is an important source of employment for many in Pakistan, China and India. Around 70 percent of the world’s high-quality hand-stitched soccer balls come from Pakistan’s Sialkot region where roughly 60,000 people work in the industry. China is the global leader in machine-made footballs.
Despite the popularity of the game, many football workers, particularly hand-stitchers, receive low pay. Meanwhile, high value brands like Nike, Puma and Adidas require high quality footballs sold with their branding.
Fairtrade works with producers of handballs and volleyballs, as well as soccer and rugby balls. Due to the limited amount of research available on sports ball production in general, this page focuses on soccer balls made in Pakistan.
The salient issues in the sports ball sector
- Living Wage
In Pakistan, the wages of football factory workers fall below the national living wage estimate and sometimes even below the legal minimum wage. In home-based stitching the risk of low wages is even greater.
- Working Conditions
Working conditions differ greatly based on the site of production – be that at home, in a village set-up or in a factory. Those working in football production often work long days consisting of repetitive, manual labour.
- Gender Equity
In Pakistan, many of the workers within the football sector are women. In football manufacturing, women’s wages have tended to be lower than men’s due to workplace segregation.
- Freedom of Association
As stitching can be outsourced to individual home-based workers, collective bargaining and communality among workers is difficult to arrange. Furthermore, some workers’ trust in factory labour officers is low.
- More information on risks in sports balls
Root causes
Poverty and lack of alternatives: For many, football stitching is the only viable employment option. Independent workers have little chance to negotiate with subcontractors as the labour supply is huge.
Patriarchy: Female workers often face the worst conditions in the industry as they usually work in poor conditions at home and in stitching centres. Women’s average pay is lower than that of men, and low education levels limit the opportunities available to them.
Weak regulation and lack of enforcement: Home- and village-based stitchers are in a vulnerable position when it comes to labour rights. They are often hired by subcontractors, meaning they do not have formal contracts with factories where the corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies of large international buyers are better enforced.
Background data on sports balls (*Global Volume / **Fairtrade Volume)
Largest producer countries*
- China (44%)
- Pakistan (16%)
- Vietnam (7%)
- Thailand (7%)
- India (2%)
- Others (24%)
Data from 2023. Source: UN Comtrade, 2023.
Dominant production model*
of footballs are hand-stitched outside factories.
Source: 2010, BTC Trade for Development.
Global production*
billion US$ was the value of global inflatable balls trade in 2022.
Source: 2022, Observatory on Economic Complexity.
Fairtrade certified producer organisations**
Data from 2022.
Fairtrade certifiable production**
balls. Data from 2022.
Workers in Fairtrade organisations**
Data from 2022.
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