STITCHED UP BY THE BIG BRANDS

EURO 2000 - THE GOAL IS HUMAN RIGHTS
an action of the European Clean Clothes Campaign

THE CLEAN CLOTHES CAMPAIGN KICKS OFF!

Euro 2000 has started already. The fans are preparing their banners, the players are working hard to get on top form, and thousands of women have been sewing shorts, shirts, footballs and football shoes for months in working conditions that are simply unacceptable.

For the Clean Clothes Campaign too, the warm-up period is over. The time has come to enter the field and show what we are made of…

The Campaign team has grown much stronger since several thousands of you signed the Clean Clothes appeal to the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The appeal has received Europe-wide support, including from the world of football.

Thanks to this enlarged team, thanks to you - we have scored a first goal: on the eve of the draw in December 1999, Alain Courtois, Director of the Tournament, announced that the UEFA had demanded that the code of conduct of the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) be explicitly included in contracts with sponsors.

We have opened the scoring. But real fans know that a match is ninety minutes long and that it's best not to sing victory too early. Adidas is one of the main suppliers to Euro 2000 and both Nike and adidas sponsor several of the competing teams. We know that in the factories that produce for them, there have been clear violations of the basic rights of workers. Yet when evidence of these violations was communicated to Euro 2000 and the UEFA, the response from Alain Courtois was that he had done what he could by getting sponsors to sign up to the FIFA code of conduct.

That's simply not enough.

Now it is up to us to be pushing forward and not go on the defensive. We may not be the favourites, but at this early stage, we are in the lead. Enough to mobilise all who support football and human rights!

More (ADIDAS AND NIKE - THE OTHER "WINNERS" OF EURO 2000)