Wednesday, 13 September 2006

Taking Football to Africa


Several organisations have joined an appeal to donate football shirts to some of the poorest parts of Africa.

Flight Lieutenant Neil Hope, an air traffic controller at the military helicopter training base at RAF Shawbury, near Shrewsbury, launched the ‘Taking Football to Africa Appeal’ earlier this year to encourage personnel to give away replica football shirts for redistribution to the needy in Africa. The appeal was sent out to all RAF units and all Premier League and Championship Football Clubs.

To date, the response has been amazing, with Manchester United responding immediately with a donation of one hundred and twenty-seven shirts and numerous shorts and socks. The shirts have been worn by Manchester United first team players, including a David Beckham Champions League shirt.

Keen to support such a worthwhile initiative Quest Overseas has offered to transport shirts to Africa and starting in January 2007 will be taking strips to Kenya, Malawi, Swaziland and Tanzania. However not content to stop there, Neil and Quest have agreed to send out strips to South America too.

Is this the right sort of development? Are such practices sustainable?

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