Documenting the real story of global football fandom

The World Cup brings the whole world together, but the coverage mostly stays on the pitch. The idea was to show what makes football special by focusing on the people who bring it to life: the fans, not the millionaire players.

Working with creatives, influencers and senior Nike teams in Milan and across Europe, we created Fever Pitch, a branded photojournalism project. It ran as a daily image feed with supporting editorial, showing the other side of the beautiful game.

Photo Editor Lauren Ford found photographers in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Paris, Tokyo, Rome and London. Working closely with Editor Thomas Gorton, we built a real-time picture of the tournament.

Fever Pitch grew to sixteen photographers in six cities, capturing football obsessives everywhere: Brazilians playing on the beaches of Rio, Japanese fans pressed against TV shop windows, East Enders crying into their pints. It helped build fan brand awareness of Nike FC.

The web project then became a collectible magazine and an exhibition in Rio.