Football.

It’s a game that has had a massive impact on this planet.

A game that can change the happiness index of countries at the blow of the final whistle.

It’s a game that has torn families apart as well as create new ones filled with strangers.

A game that has famously started wars, but also paused them for 90 minutes.

It’s a game that is so powerful that it has taken many lives in tragedies but also created millions of lives during the celebrations.

A game that no matter what corner of this blue planet you are currently sitting in is being played by people of all ages, spoken about at every dinner table and worshipped more than some religions.

Football. 

It’s not just a game. 

It’s something way more important than that.

And in a country such as Brazil nothing is more important than football. 

Football is so big there that if they ever banned football there would be a civil war. And when it comes to football and your football club. The fans believe in one thing. You can change your job, your house, your car and even your spouse. 

But you can never change the club you support.

You see the club you choose to support means so much to a fan. 

It defines them.

It’s who they are.

It’ their family.

The day you choose your club is special. Whether it be from the moment you are born or the moment of awakening and a personal enlightenment that guides you to that club. 

You and your club are forever connected. 

For life.

And in this case, death too.

It’s this very insight that led to one of the best ideas ever done for a football club. It has saved many lives to date and one that I would have been very proud to make.

Introducing “Immortal Fans” for Recife Football Club.

This idea helped tackle a major problem in Brazil. One that people hardly spoke about at the dinner table and one that people would never consider ever even talking about in public.

That topic was organ donation and becoming an organ donor.

Brazilians in general just were not into donating organs like they would in other countries around the world. For a start there was no real donor system or donor cards for people to begin with and that was just one part of the problem. 

The other problem,

Football, and Brazils fanatical fans.

They just didn’t want to risk their organs going to rival fans. Ridiculous as it may sound, there was some real truth to this mindset and this in turn created the problem.

I mean just think about it for a second.

In Brazil football is everything. Your club is everything. So why would you want your donor lungs possibly ending up in the body of a rival fan cheering for the opposing team you have hated your entire life?

There’s no way you would risk that chance.

This idea took that fear away for the Recife fans.

It brought the Recife fans a way to donate their organs worry free. The fans could be sure that their organs would go to another fan of their beloved Recife and no one else.

How they launched this Recife Club Donor Card was simple, emotive and above all real. They used real Recife fans in desperate need of a transplant to continue living and breathing Recife.

Here we see these life long fans speaking into camera and saying how they would never let you down and if you donated your heart it would forever beat for Recife, every second of the day.

What a great idea. 

Your lungs would continue shouting for Recife. Your eyes will continue seeing the greatness unfold in front of you and your heart would still be pumping that Recife blood. Why would you not become an immortal fan and donate your organs for the club, after all it is for Recife.

And it worked. 

Once the club launched the Club Donor Card it really took off. There was a pick up of over 51,000 membership cards and counting. This was nearly double the size of the stadium capacity and over time would continue to grow.

It wasn’t long either that the medical community in Brazil started to see the payoff of this programme. Normally in one year there would only be about 7 transplants performed in Brazil but with Recife Club Donors card and the flood of donors now in the system there were over 28 transplants performed during that same period. The wait list especially for hearts and corneas dropped to nearly zero.

Think about that. Enough hearts. Enough eyes so that people didn’t have to wait for an organ. 

Amazing. 

This idea has been so loved by the footballing community in Brazil that other clubs are starting to pick it up. It’s also spreading around the world with other great clubs such as Barcelona and Paris St Germain setting up their own Club Donor Cards.

Now imagine what the power of those clubs and their fan base could do to the waitlists for organs across the world.

Which brings me back to where it all started.

Football.

It’s not just a game.

It’s much more important than that.

It’s the peoples game.

I Wish I Had Done That.

Gary