PLACES FOR PLAYERS
100 events, 144 Premier League players and hundreds of thousands of pounds donated to charities local to Barclays Premier League Clubs; that’s the story of the second season of ‘Creating Chances Places for Players’.
The initiative, which highlights to fans and the general public how Barclays Premier League Clubs play an important role in their communities, requires players to ‘get their hands dirty’ and take an active role in promoting what their own club’s community departments and Foundations do all year-round.
Every Club had five player events: four to highlight the work done by their own community teams and a fifth one where local charities applied to ‘win’ a player and a £4,000 donation. Each club additionally nominated five other charities to receive a £4,000 donation; the Premier League donated £480,000 to good causes as part of ‘Places for Players’.
Some of the highlights were Manchester City’s Shaun Wright-Phillips helping out as a handyman in aid of Age Concern, Newcastle United’s Nicky Butt working as a gardener for the Prince’s Trust, Tottenham Hotspur’s Jermaine Jenas going all Jamie Oliver to promote healthy eating to teenagers, and Liverpool’s Jamie Carragher went back to school to teach children about the value of family life. All of the players were fantastic in their support of this year’s Places for Players programme and it subsequently went on to be shortlisted for ‘Best Use of PR in a Sport Campaign’ at the prestigious 2009 Sports industry Awards.
