Over the next few months, a global development initiative will have a  decidedly sports-oriented push.

In 2000, governments around the world pledged to achieve “Education for All” by 2015. While much was achieved in the first several years, about halfway through it was apparent that the effort needed a renewed push as there were millions still without access to any type of educational opportunity. With that in mind, the Class of 2015 was launched in 2008 to to accelerate progress to getting everyone an education by 2015, and meeting the globally agreed education goals as outlined in the UN’s Millennial Development Goals (MDG) .

The Class of 2015 is made up of the Global Campaign for Education, some of the world’s leading charities, major multi-national companies, supportive governments, senior education advocates, teacher trade unions through Education International, major faith leaders and other important supporters of Education for All.

Many of those “important supporters” come from the world of soccer/football. 1GOAL is an initiative being heavily supported by FIFA and current and former players to mobilize support to hold world leaders to these promises for 2015.

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About 1GOAL: Education for ALL

In 2000, 164 world governments came together to create the UN Millennium Development Goals. 2 of the 8 goals involve ending poverty through providing education for all:

They promised to make sure there was enough money and that the policies were in place to make it a reality. Since then many countries have abolished school fees, spending was increased by $4 billion and an extra 40 million children are now going to school.

1GOAL is an initiative to mobilise support to hold world leaders to these promises for 2015. 1GOAL is run by the Global Campaign for Education and is part of a large global education initiative: the Class of 2015, http://www.classof2015.org.

The campaign, launches on April 20th 2010 and will run up until the World Cup final on July 11th will engage and mobilise the World Cup audience through films, digital & print channels globally, involving some of the biggest Broadcasters, Sponsors, Players, Teams And Nations In The World.

Ahead Of Launch Individual Supporters that have signed up for 1GOAL, Include: Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah Of Jordan; Co-Founder And Global Co-Chair, Jacob Zuma, President, South Africa; Hillary Clinton US; Secretary Of State; Jose Luis Rodriquez Zapatero; President, Spain; Gordon Brown, Prime Minister, UK; Ban Ki-Moon; Secretary-General, United Nations; Kevin Rudd; Prime Minister, Australia; Sepp Blatter; President, FIFA; Bono; Eusébio, Portugal; Gary Lineker, England; Josep Guardiola, Barcelona; (Manager); Marcel Desailly, France; Mia Hamm, USA; Michael Essien, Ghana; Rio Ferdinand, England; Robin Van Persie; Netherlands; Robinho, Brazil; Thierry Henry, France; Tim Cahill, Australia; Tim Howard, USA; Zinedine Zidane, France, among many others.