Help the UFL change how we see “soccer”

Maxwell Murray is organizing this fundraiser.

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Hello, my name is Maxwell Murray and I am the founder of the Urban Football League, a grassroots organization focused on connecting Black communities to the game of football/soccer. We are focused on breaking down the barriers of access that limit our involvement in the sport at a high and organized level, while also building avenues of opportunity for us to learn about and play the game.

We call it “football” because it connects us to the rest of the world. Only here in the United States of America do we think of soccer a sport of seclusion and affluence. Everywhere else in the world football, fútbol, fussbal, or however else you want to refer to the beautiful game is a poor man or woman’s game. It’s a sport that can be played with absolutely anything, a rock, pieces of trash bundled up with rubber bands, or a can. This is the mission of the Urban Football League, to offer the game to our communities in a language that they can understand. Instead of having to pay thousands of dollars and drive an hour plus to play (which was my and so many other Black footballers experiences), the UFL wants to bring the game to us.

As of now, we are hosting local pickup games and youth sessions for our communities to engage with. We are based in the Hyde Park Community of Chicago, IL. The pickup games and Saturday Sessions for kids are just the first steps of what the Urban Football League, can and will be. Some of our long term goals include building an amateur men’s and women’s team to compete in a city wide League also created by the UFL, engaging in interviews and storytelling projects with past and current Black players, coaches and supporters, hosting a podcast that centers not only our football fandom and support but also our Blackness, building mini football courts and turf fields to raise the awareness and skill level of football in our communities, building a professional Black owned men’s and women’s football club called the Black Stars, and most importantly finding a way to partner with MLS and NISA clubs in Chicago, Detroit and Atlanta to hopefully build satellite developmental academies which would offer high level training, coaching and facilities for talented footballers who come financially disadvantaged backgrounds.