FOX Sports joined the Common Goal movement in advance of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in a multi-year collaboration dedicated to sharing the story of soccer for social impact to the network’s millions of viewers across its far-reaching platforms. Common Goal is a global nonprofit organization maximizing soccer’s contribution to society by forging a lasting connection between soccer as a business and soccer as a catalyst for social transformation.
As a part of the movement, FOX Sports became the first ever national FIFA World Cup broadcaster to take Common Goal’s 1% pledge, targeting 1% of its multi-platform coverage through 2026 to tell the story of soccer for good and shift the narrative about the impact the sport can have to change lives, while capitalizing on the network’s promise to celebrate the beautiful game at every level of play. During the largest FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament in history in the summer of 2023, FOX Sports aimed to over-deliver on its commitment.
The company also furthered its historic collaboration with Common Goal announcing to widespread global media coverage in the weeks leading up to the women’s World Cup its role as a founding partner in Common Goal’s inspiring new mental health initiative, Create the Space, in collaboration with United States Women's National Team (USWNT) players. The program equips participants at every level of the sport with the knowledge, skills and resources to understand, prevent and deal with mental health issues.
FOX Sports produced a three-part feature series showcasing USWNT forward Sophia Smith and defenders Naomi Girma and Sofia Huerta’s support of Create the Space and their efforts to prioritize mental well-being alongside physical fitness at every level of the game. Each piece sought to provide intimate access into these women’s’ lives – who are true role models for young athletes in the sport nationwide – sharing their stories with millions of viewers throughout the tournament across FOX Sports platforms.
The USWNT players opened up about their personal struggles with mental wellness in order for the pieces to underscore the need for mental health training in the sport. The features act as a mirror for the USWNT players' stories, paralleling them with those of young female athletes from across the country who are navigating their own mental health journeys while also amplifying the work of nonprofit partners in underserved communities and highlighting the importance of connecting the professional and grassroots sides of soccer.
The mental health feature series was shot in five cities (Los Angeles, Omaha, Portland, San Diego and Seattle) over the course of two months and featured exclusive in-home interviews with Smith, Girma and Huerta just weeks before the start of their World Cup training camp.
Smith's piece covered the pressure she's felt throughout her life to perform and what it's been like becoming a role model for girls like Taylor from the Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization Football for Her. Girma opened up about confidence on and off the field and the power of belonging for girls like Chudear from the Omaha-based nonprofit organization Football for the World. Huerta discussed her battle with anxiety and the importance of representing young Mexican-American girls like Jocelyn from the San Diego-based nonprofit organization Chicano Federation on the world's biggest stage.
The three-part series aired during FOX Sports' Women's World Cup linear programming, across its digital and social media platforms and in local FOX station programming across the country throughout the duration of the tournament. In addition to the features, FOX Sports aired PSAs produced with Common Goal and the USWNT supporting the launch of the mental health initiative across the aforementioned distribution channels and offered viewers the opportunity to support the initiative through a text-to-donate campaign to bring mental health services to under-resourced communities in the United States.
At the conclusion of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, FOX Sports’ total commitment of airtime to telling the importance of positive mental health exceeded 6% (6 times more than the 1% Common Goal pledge) with more than 12 hours of coverage and reaching more than 43.8 million viewers, while the total audience for the collaboration itself surpassed 4.85 billion viewers. The launch of the Create the Space mental health initiative was Common Goal's most successful program to date in terms of audience reach, earned media (more than $9 million) and funds raised through a text-to-donate campaign. The campaign was also nominated for the Sports Emmy Award in Outstanding Public Service Content at the 45th Annual Sports Emmy Awards.
As a result of the program’s success, Common Goal and FOX Sports implemented the inaugural Create the Space Retreat in January 2024, convening professional soccer players from every National Women's Soccer League team and youth soccer coaches from community organizations in the same markets for four days of comprehensive mental health training. Additionally, during the most anticipated stretch on this year’s soccer calendar last summer with the UEFA EURO 2024 and CONMEBOL Copa América 2024 tournaments, FOX Sports and Common Goal took the program on the road hosting a series of mental health trainings for youth soccer coaches nationwide and hundreds of young athletes in select Copa América host locations including Atlanta, Kansas City, Los Angeles, New Jersey / New York and Orlando.
