All Whites v Tahiti

The All White’s match against Tahiti was a big event in Christchurch with a huge crowd in attendance cheering the All Whites to victory. Check out the photo’s from the match highlighting the White Ribbon activities.

A special thank you to the White Ribbon volunteers and Barnados for their help handing out the thousands of ribbons, face painting a placing the signage.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

History

New Zealand Football and the New Zealand Professional Footballers Association (NZPFA) partnered with White Ribbon as the All Whites official cause in 2011 and have put together a number of initiatives to profile ending men’s violence towards women.

‘Sometimes being tough gets confused with being violent but as a team we demonstrate that that both on and off the field violence is not ok,’ Ivan Vicelich, All White and father of one said. ‘Most of us have wives now, some have daughters. But all of us, and in fact all men have women in their lives – a friend, a sister, their mother – that they wouldn’t want to see in harm’s way. Signing up for White Ribbon is a way we can publically show that men are the solution.’

All Whites games have been used to raise awareness of the White Ribbon with on field messaging from the ground announcers, key messages delivered by the Sky TV commentators, signage, thousands of ribbons distributed to the fans, White Ribbon Riders and rides around the ground, white ribbon tattoos on children, press releases, cross promotion utilising each organisations media channels, ribbons on the players training gear and full page testimonials about White Ribbon in the match programmes.

The All Whites also produced their own poster, while team members took the pledge to never commit, condone or remain silent about violence towards women. Former All White Harry Ngata became a White Ribbon Ambassador and the Football Association created the White Ribbon Cup in 2012 enabling the White Ribbon message to be spread throughout communities.