As the spotlight shines on New York for the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final, another final will be taking place more than 12,000 kilometres away. There will be no packed stadiums, no global superstars, and no worldwide television audience. Yet the emotion will be just as intense, the desire to win just as strong and, above all, the belief that football can change lives even more powerful.
In Prayagraj, in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, young girls from rural communities will play in their own World Cup final: the Toofaan Cup 2026. Organised by the Naandi Foundation, this symbolic competition mirrors the FIFA World Cup knockout stage, match by match, across seven Indian states. Every fixture of the international tournament is echoed on the dusty football pitches of rural India. Just a few days ago, for example, France faced… Sweden in the heart of Andhra Pradesh.
The idea is as simple as it is powerful: to allow young girls to experience the excitement of the world’s greatest sporting event while using football as a tool for empowerment.
Because here, the real challenge extends far beyond the football pitch.
Founded in 1998, the Naandi Foundation has become one of India’s leading organisations driving social change. Through its Nanhi Kali programme, it supports hundreds of thousands of girls from disadvantaged, predominantly rural communities, helping them access education and build brighter futures in environments where opportunities remain limited.
Over the past few years, football has become a cornerstone of this ambition.
Implemented across seventeen districts in India, the programme is built around two complementary pillars. At school, girls take part in educational activities that strengthen learning, build self-confidence and encourage them to speak up. Beyond the classroom, football fields become spaces for self-expression, mentorship and learning how to work together as a team.
The integration of sport has marked a genuine shift in approach. Since 2018, it has no longer been viewed as a one-off activity, but as an essential part of every girl’s educational journey. Because sometimes, a football can open the door to entirely new opportunities.
On these pitches, the coaches “Women Game Changers” are themselves women from the local communities. They embody success that feels attainable and help transform perceptions of girls’ place in society. Match after match, pass after pass, they demonstrate that sport can become a powerful catalyst for confidence, freedom and empowerment. Football is no longer just a game. It becomes a shared language, a space where social barriers begin to disappear, where girls claim their place and where a different story can begin.
It is with this common vision that Peace and Sport partnered with the Naandi Foundation through the Peacemakers Project since 2020. Far beyond a simple evaluation, this collaboration has helped measure the programme’s impact on girls and their communities while identifying the mechanisms that make sport a powerful driver of social transformation. By documenting these lessons and sharing them more widely, the ambition is now to inspire other organisations, enabling them to adapt these approaches to their own contexts and harness sport as a force for empowerment, inclusion and peace.
On July 19, the world will undoubtedly remember the names of the champions crowned in New York. But at that very same moment, in Prayagraj, another group of champions will lift a very different kind of World Cup trophy. A trophy that brings neither millions nor lucrative contracts.
A trophy that offers something far more valuable: confidence, freedom and the power to believe that the future can be played differently.
Credits photo – Naandi Fondation
