A soccer ball was in the air in five countries at once on June 6.
A total of 511 soccer players gathered in Miami Beach to beat a Guinness World Record. At the same time, more than 5,000 people across the United States, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, and the United Kingdom juggled a soccer ball in unison for 10 seconds.
The multi-city event was organized by Where Football Lives, a global environmental campaign focused on protecting future generations of soccer players from extreme weather and climate change.
“Soccer belongs to everyone: to the kids playing in the parks of Miami, the communities gathered around a screen in Kansas City, and the volunteers keeping grassroots teams alive all across the U.S.,” Jenna Lamb, the U.S. Director of Where Football Lives, said in a press release. “But extreme heat, flooding, wildfires, and poor air quality are putting all of that at risk.”
According to Where Football Lives, youth sports families are already feeling the impacts of climate change. Parents across the U.S. estimate that their children lost an average of one full week of practices or competitions in 2024 due to extreme temperatures, wildfire smoke, flooding, and unpredictable winters.
The group said climate change is flooding soccer fields and driving temperatures higher, restricting how long children can safely play outside.
“Throughout my career, I’ve felt firsthand how the climate crisis is shifting the ground beneath our feet,” said Ali Riley, one of New Zealand’s most well-known professional soccer players. “Playing in suffocating heat isn’t just about a drop in performance, it is a serious health hazard.”
“While professional players have medical staff and cooling breaks, kids training on exposed neighborhood pitches have no protection,” she continued. “If we don’t act to safeguard our local fields, we are taking away the very spaces that shape the future of our game.”
Laura Biondo, a Venezuelan football freestyler and world champion, also took part in the event.
“I’ve been fortunate to break multiple world records in my career, but this one feels different,” Biondo said. “To be part of a global moment like this, here in Miami, one of the most heat-exposed World Cup host cities, and to help protect the places where football lives, is incredibly special.”
Proceeds from the initiative will support upgrades to grassroots soccer sites across the U.S. and Mexico so they can better withstand extreme heat, cold, and flooding.
Organizers also teamed up with the U.S. Soccer Forward Foundation and Football for Future to launch “adaptation tool kits” designed to help youth soccer communities around the world adapt to extreme weather.
Lamb said the synchronized action was timed for five days before the World Cup kicks off.
“We all love the game, but we also need to be safe, and it’s going to be one of the hottest World Cups on record, and Miami is already set to be one of the hottest cities, as they don’t have air conditioning,” she explained. “We love the game, and it’s a vibrant community, but we also need to be safe and protect the game.”
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