To meet this expanding US market, the soccer ball industry has greatly increased production in nations where kids making leather hand-stitched balls are a major source of their labor. Sialkot is a region in eastern Pakistan where most of the world's soccer balls are produced. Child laborers typically work 12-hour days and get paid 60 cents for each ball. Each soccer ball is made of 32 leather panels and 642 stitches.
Children use an awl to punch holes for each stitch.
Child laborers work into almost totally dark and quiet environments and are punished if they fall asleep, have a messy work area, miscut, waste material, or complain about mistreatment. Child laborers are forced to work until their fingers become gnarled and crippled from sewing tight stitches. They also suffer from other physical and emotional problems due to their harsh working conditions. Support a letter writing campaign to continue to pressure soccer ball retailers and manufacturers to use child-free labor. Ask the gym teachers at local schools if the balls they use have a FIFA label 4.