Get your children designing a football kit fit for the Moon!

Football may be the most popular game on the planet, but as the world's biggest international football tournament kicks off for 2023, we’ve launched a new campaign and competition to capture children’s imaginations to get them thinking about Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM).

Working with a panel of engineering and technology experts, we’ve outlined the innovations required for humans to have a competitive kickabout on the Moon’s surface once a lunar base has been established.

The panel has also created the first-ever Lunar Football Rule Book, to adapt the beautiful game to the vastly different conditions players can expect, including harsh, dusty terrain, zero oxygen and potentially fatal risks of collision.

Important changes needed to be made to make the beloved game fit for the Moon include a 1.5x bigger football, four ten-minute quarters of play with breaks for equipment repair and refuelling, a netted ground and bigger goals, no offside rule and the game becoming a no-contact sport.

Some of the necessary tech involved has also been outlined, such as replacing the regular kit with a specially made suit with features such as built-in padding for the elbows and knees, heating and cooling systems that can adjust to the lunar climate, as well as a high-tech helmet and much more.

To mark the launch of the Lunar Football Rule Book, we’re inviting children across the UK aged 4-13 to design the first official Moon Utd football kit in time for kick-off.

With two age categories included (4-7 years and 8-13 years), the competition entries will be judged by our experts, with two chosen winners receiving their Moon Utd kit designs in real life!

To enter the competition, designs can be drawn onto our entry form or paper and submitted to moonunited@theiet.org by Friday 15 September 2023.

Ama Frimpong, our current Young Woman Engineer of the Year and one of the competition judges, said:

“Getting young people to think about how engineering and technology can be part of the things that they love is really important, and doing this from an early age is essential in showcasing the opportunities available and raising aspirations for careers in these sectors.

We hope our competition really allows children to show off their creativity and have fun designing a futuristic new kit fit for Moon United, demonstrating that engineering and tech-related careers really are out of this world.”

Moon United is part of our annual Engineer a Better World campaign, which aims to challenge outgrown perceptions of the engineering industry and encourage more children to be excited and inspired by a potential future in STEM studies and engineering careers.