Enabling Leadership’s mixed-gender “football for life skills” program, EL Play, has won the BEST “Football for Good” program award at the 2025 World Football Summit (WFS) in Madrid. The prestigious award, sponsored by Common Goal, celebrates organizations that are using football as a catalyst for lasting social transformation.
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Ravi Sonnad, CEO of Enabling Leadership talking about EL Play at the WFS Summit
The World Football Summit Awards are among the most respected recognitions in the global football industry, spotlighting individuals, initiatives, and organizations driving innovation and positive change across the world of sport. The Football for Good Award sponsored by Common Goal specifically honours programs that leverage football to advance equality, inclusion, and community empowerment — values deeply embedded in Enabling Leadership’s mission.
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Ramkey Ananthakrishnan & Ravi Sonnad receiving the WFS 2025 ‘Football for Good’ award
Enabling Leadership Play (EL Play) began as a bold experiment over a decade ago, and today hosts the world’s largest mixed-gender football league, reaching over 6,000 children across Asia and Africa. Through EL Play, children from underserved communities build confidence, empathy, teamwork, resilience, and leadership — skills that help them not only dream bigger but break generational cycles of poverty by becoming productive and responsible adults capable of taking care of themselves AND the world around them.
The award was received by Ravi Sonnad, CEO, and Ramkey Ananthakrishnan, Chairman of the Board of Enabling Leadership Global, at the World Football Summit 2025 in Madrid.
Ravi Sonnad, CEO of Enabling Leadership, said: “This award is a celebration of every child who dared to defy the impossible. EL Play was born from a simple belief — that football can teach more than goals and games; it can teach empathy, equality, and leadership. It is heartening to see this belief reflected in our impact — our partner schools report academic improvement among their students enrolled in the EL Play program. These children now believe that boys and girls are equal, and they have significantly strengthened key life skills through the program. This recognition is truly for our coaches, schools, and partners who have helped make this vision real every single day.”
This global recognition reinforces Enabling Leadership’s vision that given the right opportunity and access, every child can be a role model, a global citizen, and a changemaker. The unique and innovative EL Play program is a transformational force in education and community development, and this award validates the impact the program is making.
For more information, visit www.enablingleadership.org.
