In 2020, the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy’s (SC) social and human legacy programme, Generation Amazing (GA), celebrated its 10th anniversary with several major milestones, including reaching over 160, 000 people worldwide with its online programme streamed weekly via Instagram Live.

In January, GA teamed up with partner club and Belgian First Division side KAS Eupen to host a football-for-development session for local school children during the team's winter training camp in Doha. Eupen players trained with participating children at Aspire Academy to instill a greater appreciation for teamwork. This initiative with Eupen marks one of several organised since GA signed a strategic partnership with the Belgian side in September 2019.

In February, the announcement of former Australian international Tim Cahill as a new global ambassador of the SC and Qatar 2022 was celebrated through an engagement with GA, which took place at Aspire Academy, engaging GA school programme children, who were all excited to meet the former English Premier League player.

With the spread of COVID-19, on-pitch sessions including the school and worker programme sessions came to a halt in March - leading to GA’s decision to take its football for development programming online.

This year brought a challenging set of circumstances and it was important to set up a plan to ensure continued outreach to youth. GA was committed to taking the programme online as a way to raise the spirits of its followers and to empower the learning journey of youth around the world.

In efforts to continue to inspire youth and audiences in Qatar and globally, GA streamed football for development drills, for example, in the form of GA master-led home workouts designed to get those confined at home active and learning about programme-taught skills like teamwork, communication and organisation.

Also included in the streams were an array of weekly GA Star Chats featuring SC global ambassadors and regional ambassadors which included football legends Xavi Hernandez and Cafu, and local stars Khalid Salman and Ibrahim Khalfan. In line with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development goals (SDGs), the programme’s pillar causes, gender equality and inclusion, were also with women footballers such as Paris Saint Germain’s Nadia Nadim and GA partner club AS Roma’s Allison Swaby.

Additionally, the sessions included a variety of live talks with sport development partner organisations including the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). Book readings based on GA learnings and in collaboration with Maktaba were also on the programme, which saw a total number of 26.1 million people engaging with the GA Live sessions and hashtag.

The programme’s online presence has opened new doors for the ways in which football for development can make a positive impact on youth and there are plans to continue to leverage this opportunity to raise awareness and to connect with our target audience in Qatar and around the world.

In July 2020, GA teamed up with with Josoor Institute (JI) and the University Campus of Football Business (UCFB) to deliver a series of webinars about the role of sport and learning in supporting youth during the COVID-19 pandemic. This was to be the first in a series of monthly discussions involving the SC Legacy programmes, plus representatives from their strategic partners.

Later in October, GA hosted a high-level webinar about the soft power of sports diplomacy. Titled ‘Introduction to Sports Diplomacy: From Concept to Practice’, the virtual event was organised with JI, in collaboration with the UNESCO Office for the Gulf States and Yemen, to provide a platform for sharing a global perspective on using the power of sport to advance national goals.

Additionally, this year GA announced a partnership agreement with the IFRC to jointly deliver football for development programmes to vulnerable youth in several countries across the Middle East, Asia, Africa and South America.

GA is wrapping up the year with two prestigious Golden Bridge Awards for the GA Live online campaign aimed at inspiring youth to stay active and healthy at home during the ongoing pandemic.

The online engagement initiative, hosting football for development sessions online, beat entries from around the world to take the Silver Winner category respectively for Best Use of Social Media and Communications or PR Campaign of the Year.

For the second year in a row, the programme successfully held the annual youth festival from 2 - 4 December as over 700 youth from more than 50 countries learned about the power of football to create positive social change in their communities.

The GA Festival 2020 was delivered virtually in strategic partnership with Qatar Foundation and supported by Qatar Airways, UCFB, B4Development, with beIN Sports, beIN MEDIA GROUP’s flagship sports channel, as the official Media Partner, and Ooredoo as the Technical Partner. The festival brought together young people from across Qatar, the region and the world to promote football for good under the theme of connectedness.

Earlier this month, GA took part in the festivities during the Amir Cup Final and inauguration of Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium through an activation at half time. GA Youth Advocates and coaches were invited for a football for development session alongside SC Ambassadors Cahill and Samuel Eto´o. The session highlighted teamwork as a key GA value with social distancing implemented at all times.

Learn more about Generation Amazing by following @GA4Good on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.