FA Cup Kick-Off Times Delayed One Minute For Mental Health Campaign
January 10, 2020
This past weekend's Emirates FA Cup matches in the UK all kicked off with a one-minute delay as part of the Football Association's ‘Heads Up’ campaign to promote mental well-being amongst fans.
All 32 games over the weekend started a minute later than would be traditional, with most fixtures beginning at 3.01pm on Saturday.
The campaign aims to stress the importance of looking after mental health and to offer small steps people can take towards improved well-being. Resources to create a personal mental health action plan were signposted for fans across the weekend.
This initiative hopes to encourage more men to feel comfortable talking about their mental health, and to feel able to support their friends and families through difficult times. The partnership will signpost to the free, online ‘Every Mind Matters’ resources and ‘Your Mind Plan’ tool, which fans can use to create a personal mental health action plan, providing them with a tailored set of simple self-care actions.
In conjunction with Heads Up charity partners Mind, CALM, Heads Together and Sporting Chance, fans will also be provided helpful tips and advice on how they can approach managing their mental health. Messaging will be visible across the weekend of fixtures, both in the stadia and for the millions watching from home.
Initiated by HRH The Duke of Cambridge, the Heads Up campaign utilizes the influence and popularity of football to encourage more people – particularly men – to feel comfortable talking about, and taking action to improve, their mental health and to recognise that mental fitness is just as important as physical fitness.
FA chief executive Mark Bullingham said: “While delaying kick-off times by 60 seconds is a simple idea, it provides a powerful platform for us and our Heads Up charity partners to deliver a really important message on mental health. We know that men in particular can be reluctant to talk about the subject, so it is important that we use football as a vehicle to stress the importance of mental fitness.”
Godric Smith, chair of the Heads Up campaign, added: “It's fitting that the first big Heads Up campaign moment should be linked to the Emirates FA Cup third round - a signature moment in any football season.”
“The Emirates FA Cup is a competition for everyone - for clubs big and small - and we want to use its power to help show that we all have mental health and that we can all take a minute to focus on how we can start to improve it,” says Godric Smith.
The Emirates FA Cup third round draw was facilitated by Tony Adams, former England international and three-time FA Cup winner and founder of Heads Up charity partner, Sporting Chance. Third round ties took place over the weekend of 3-6 January 2020.
Fans can search ‘Every Mind Matters’ to create their own personal mental health action plan. Those in need of immediate support in the UK can text ‘HeadsUp’ to 85258 to be connected to a trained crisis counsellor. This service is available 24/7 and free to text from most mobile networks.