Arsenal Foundation Legends Match to donate £1m for football pitches
Melanie May | 2 September 2016 | News
The Arsenal Foundation is to donate £1m to build football pitches for children in London, Jordan and Somalia following The Arsenal Foundation Legends Match at Emirates Stadium, which takes place this Saturday, the 3rd September.
Arsenal Legends including Robert Pires, David Seaman and Freddie Ljungberg will face ‘Milan Glorie’ which includes Rossoneri legends Paolo Maldini, Franco Baresi and Cafu in the match.
The event’s objective is to raise money to develop football pitches and programmes local to Emirates Stadium and in camps for refugees and internally displaced young people in Jordan and Somalia, as well as football programmes in the UK. The football projects in Jordan and Somalia are run in partnership with Save the Children. The match is set to be a 60,000 sell out and all net proceeds will contribute to the £1m fund for the projects.
To date, working with Arsenal in the Community and Save the Children, The Arsenal Foundation has helped develop 14 pitches locally and recently opened two pitches in Iraq for internally displaced people. Earlier this year, Arsenal Ladies Captain, Alex Scott visited the two pitches funded by The Arsenal Foundation in Iraq and spent time training young girls there. Arsenal Foundation Ambassador, Martin Keown, who will also feature in the match, visited the Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan in 2013.
Tanya Steele, interim chief executive at Save the Children said:
“The Legends’ Match is a chance to celebrate football’s ability to excite, inspire and entertain. It’s a day to recognise the power of football to improve the lives of vulnerable children. For these children, the new playing surfaces will be much more than just pitches. For a child whose life has been torn apart by war, it’s a safe place to play, to make new friends – and to be a child again.”
“Thanks to money raised from the Legends’ Match, The Arsenal Foundation will build five football pitches in Jordan and two in Somalia in partnership with Save the Children. Arsenal in the Community will also receive further funding to develop and upgrade pitches in Islington and neighbouring boroughs where its work reaches over 5,000 people every week.”
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.