The Door That Changed Everything: A Founder's Reflection

They say when one door closes, another opens. At Football for Humanity, we’ve learned something slightly different: sometimes, you send an email about a door and it opens an entire continent. Seven months ago, I wasn’t searching for a global partner. I was trying to replace my front door. A routine enquiry to a local fitter. That was the scope. Instead, that enquiry led me to Mark Hayes. What followed was not a transaction. It was alignment.

Mark Hayes, Global Lead at SMS Pro Soccer & Chris Thomas, Founder of Football for Humanity

Beyond the Threshold

Our first conversations moved quickly beyond home improvement. Mark’s achievements in England were incredibly inspiring—quiet, consistent work. No noise, just impact. One example stayed with me: he created a simple table located in a pub called "Table 12", a space where people could sit, talk, and be heard. It became a point of refuge, used by those facing mental health struggles and by individuals experiencing domestic violence, offering a moment of safety when it was needed most. In that space, people could breathe, speak, and be supported in a way that felt immediate and human. One person even shared that it had saved their life. That told me exactly where his values were anchored.

Beneath that was something sharper: a genuine desire to take that impact global. There are moments where instinct cuts through process. This was one of them. I knew he was the right person to help expand the mission.

Less than two weeks later, I wasn’t calling about the door. I called with a challenge.

From Enquiry to Ethiopia

What followed was not coincidence. It was execution. Mark moved immediately connecting people, opening networks, and solving problems before they surfaced. He brought in his long-time friend, Emmerson Boyce, a former Premier League defender and FA Cup winner with Wigan Athletic, whose career represents the highest level of English football and whose presence carried both authority and humility. Emmerson brought lived experience at the top of the game, alongside a grounded character that resonated deeply in every space he entered, elevating the entire programme through example as much as involvement.

In partnership with the British Embassy in Ethiopia, where Sirgut Hailu Mengiste, Soft Power Project Manager at the Embassy and leader of the She Wins project, we built something that went beyond a project. In just one week, over 10,000 children were directly impacted, while more than 500,000 people were reached through media and social platforms. It became the most-watched UK–Ethiopia Embassy event to date.

Yet the numbers only tell part of the story.

The real image that endures is this: an FA Cup-winning captain standing in a youth centre in Ethiopia, transferring belief, not just words, to young people who had rarely been seen, let alone heard.

Where Effort Becomes Outcome

Projects are visible. Processes are not. What many won’t see is what came after: the logistics, the persistence, and the complexity of navigating international systems.

This is where Mark’s contribution became decisive. Securing visas for Abaynesh and her team was not straightforward. At multiple points, the message was clear: it’s unlikely, it’s complex, the odds are against it. But that tends to have the opposite effect.

Say it can’t be done, and the response is immediate: challenge accepted. It is probably the worst thing you can say to men wired this way, because we will find a way.

Mark carried that process with precision and persistence, coordinating, advocating, and pushing through systems and setbacks that rarely appear in the final story. This is the kind of work that defines outcomes without ever being seen in them. Between us, we’ve operated in environments that test limits, sometimes life-threatening, often unpredictable, and still found solutions. That mindset does not disappear when the challenge becomes bureaucratic. It adapts. It sharpens.

So we do not stop at obstacles. We build around them. We reroute. We persist until something gives. Not for recognition. Not for ourselves. But for what it unlocks—for individuals, for communities, and for a country. And eventually, in this case, it did. The visas were secured. The door opened.

The Full Circle Moment

Mark Hayes - Abaynesh - Emmerson Boyce

This week, that work became reality. Abaynesh, one of the coaches developed through She Wins, has officially secured 24 visas. Abaynesh and her team will travel to the UK this July (5th–11th) to compete in Mark’s SMS 7V7 tournament at Bolton Wanderers Academy.

This is what the pathway looks like when it works. Local coaching evolving into international opportunity. Marginalised voices moving from the edges into a global platform. And potential, once unseen, becoming full participation.

What started as a simple front door enquiry has become a functioning bridge between two cultures, built through trust, persistence, and shared intent.

Step Through the Door

This July 2026 is not just a tournament. It is evidence that football, when used properly, becomes infrastructure, not entertainment. A mechanism for access, dignity, and opportunity.

Because the truth remains unchanged: you never know what comes from a single enquiry.

As for my house, I still haven’t fitted the front door. At this point, I am beginning to suspect that was never really the point. In fact, I am no longer convinced it was ever about the door at all.

Perhaps something else was being opened all along!