1GOAL:Education for All, the FIFA-backed legacy project for the 2010 World Cup, has launched what it claims is the world’s biggest ever mobile campaign. Mobile companies from across the globe have come together to offer more than 1.5bn people an opportunity to show their support for 1GOAL, with over 1bn text messages going out to people in the coming weeks.

1GOAL seeks to get every child into school by 2015, rallying support from footballers and fans across the world. An estimated $16bn (£11bn) a year is needed to make universal education a reality, but currently only $4bn is spent on primary education. 1GOAL is calling for further funding from both developing and rich countries to get every child in to a classroom.

Telefónica Group, which has 274m customers across 25 countries, is supporting the campaign. It will be promoting the ‘education for all’ message as part of a long-standing objective to make a positive impact on economic, technological and social progress.

Major football stars past and present, including Alessandro del Piero, Rio Ferdinand, Zinedine Zidane and Michael Essien, have also pledged their support, along with another 8m people so far.

Signups from the 1GOAL mobile campaign will be presented as a petition to world leaders at an education summit later this year, urging both developing and developed countries to provide further funding for education. People will be able to sign up by responding ‘YES’ to a simple free text or by going to 1goal.mobi on their handsets, or by sending an e-mail to [email protected]. Handset manufacturers Nokia and Samsung will also be making a 1GOAL mobile app available for their customers.

Chelsea and Ghana star Essien says: “I think education is the key to success. I was lucky growing up, my mum worked incredibly hard to make sure me and my four sisters could get an education. She did not get the chance to go to school but she gave us the opportunity. It is great to have the World Cup for the first time in Africa. The continent has been dreaming about it and now the World Cup is coming to Africa. I think the 1GOAL education project will be good for the kids after the World Cup because we could see a lot more kids in school.”

Her Majesty, Queen Rania of Jordan, Co-founder and Co-Chair of 1GOAL adds: “Michael Essien is a great example of how football stars can show their passion for this years World Cup and for the legacy it strives to create: giving 72m out-of-school children an education. But 1GOAL isn’t just about the footballers; it’s about the fans too. Teaming up with the mobile phone industry, 1GOAL can now reach over a billion people worldwide, making it the largest, cause-related campaign in history.”

The mobile campaign is being coordinated by the GSM Association. It includes a host of soccer-related downloads, such as player images and videos, as well as ringtones, wallpapers and smartphone apps, culminating in a text message campaign calling for the support of billions of mobile users around the World Cup. Mobile groups and networks supporting the campaign include AT&T Wireless, Bharti-Airtel, CSL, Hutchison 3 Group, NTT DOCOMO, SingTel Group, Telenor Group, Telefónica Group and and Zain Group.