Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash, right, is a big soccer fan. (Jim Mone/Associated Press)

Soccer is the world game, the beautiful game, and the No. 1 spectator sport on the planet, but it is much more than what takes place on the field between two teams.

A sport that is followed with fervour by over a billion fans across the globe, soccer can also serve as a unifying mechanism and a tool for social change, a fact not lost on Canadian NBA star Steve Nash.

Nash, a starting point guard for the Phoenix Suns, is one of the NBA's most prominent stars and the only Canadian to win the league's MVP award (in 2005 and 2006). The native of Victoria is also a huge soccer fan, and is using his passion for the sport to help those in need around the world.

On Saturday during a gala event in Toronto, Nash will officially launch a new organization called Football for Good, a collaboration between his charitable foundation and Toronto-based outfit Athletes for Africa.

Nash said Football for Good's goal is to bring soccer academies, and "cultural programs and leadership training to regions ravaged by war."

The Phoenix Suns star explained that he and Adrian Bradbury, founder and director of Athletes for Africa, put their heads together and began to explore ways they can use sport to help people in need in places such as Africa.

What they came up with was Football for Good.

"We started thinking, what's the link between Africa and the rest of the world? Because in many ways — in industry, the economy, pop culture — there are so many ways we could look at the disconnection between Africa and the rest of the world. The one common element that we found that was really strong was soccer," Nash told CBC Radio's Metro Morning on Friday.

A 'sustainable, social business'

Nash explained Football for Good is not your typical philanthropic organization, describing it as a "sustainable, social business."

It's a "new way to do social work in the form of a social business," said Nash.

"Instead of continually looking for donations and charity, we want take an initial capital raise and invest it in a social business where all the profits go back into the cause, which in this case is a soccer academy that would also have arts programs, baseline health care and education for kids in the region."

Football for Good's pilot youth centre will be built in northern Uganda, where violence has devastated its towns and villages for over two decades.

"We found a place that Adrian is very familiar with, we paid for a survey and asked what the people there wanted, and they told us they wanted something for their best and brightest to excel at, and they wanted an opportunity for them to find something better and to give back to the communities," Nash stated.

Nash believes sports, in particular soccer, can do a lot of good and help to improve people's lives.

"I think sports brings commonality between people … For us to be able to find soccer, which is so passionately loved in Africa and most regions of the world, we feel we've found something that we can bring people from the first world to give them a connection them to the people of Africa and some of the problems in their area," Nash said.

Nash comes by his love for soccer naturally, having played the game as a youngster while growing up in British Columbia. He is also part of an ownership group that is bidding to bring a Major League Soccer expansion franchise to Vancouver.

He also comes from a "soccer family."

"My parents are British and my dad was as semi-professional player, my brother [Martin] plays for the Canadian national team, and my first word was goal, so for me soccer is a huge part of my life, it's one of my big passions," Nash explained.