At Enabling Leadership, we believe that leadership begins with courage – the courage to defy the impossible.
Enabling Leadership Play (EL Play) uses the powerful medium of mixed-gender football to develop critical leadership skills and mindsets in children from low-income communities. Through structured coaching, mixed-gender league matches and reflective team huddles, every child learns to communicate, collaborate, and lead with empathy and discipline.
Today, EL Play is the largest mixed-gender football league in the world!
students across India, Cambodia, Kenya & Singapore
Hours of Engagement
Girls participation
schools report EL Play contributed to the academic improvement of their students
students believe that girls & boys are equal
of students significantly improved their key life skills.
Enabling Leadership Play (EL Play) was awarded the best “Football for Good” program at the World Football Summit 2025 in Madrid. As the world’s largest mixed-gender football league today, thousands of children from underserved communities are breaking barriers, challenging stereotypes, and learning to see each other as equals-on and off the field. What started as a bold experiment is now a powerful movement more confident girls, more empathetic boys, and a generation of leaders growing up to believe that they can take care of themselves and the world around them.
Enabling Leadership has been awarded the Global Sustainability Award 2025 (GOLD) for its work on building Climate resilient communities in the villages around Dharwad, Karnataka, India. Here, the EL Play program, supported by the adidas “Move for the Planet” campaign, is transforming school grounds into eco-friendly community hubs. Children aged 9-15 are stepping up as Green Champions – leading by example through tree planting, water conservation, and waste management initiatives. These young leaders are not only protecting their environment but also challenging gender norms and inspiring their elders to act for the planet. Across twelve villages, thousands of community members are now embracing a greener, more sustainable future – proving that when children lead, entire communities rise.
Enabling Leadership Play has been selected as one of the most impactful and scalable innovations in education worldwide, and has been featured in the HundrED Global Collection 2026. Our unique approach was chosen out of over 3000 innovations collected and was reviewed by an expert academy board.
