Chelsea Reveals Sport Development Alliance
Barclays Spaces for Sports and the Chelsea Football Club Foundation has officially announced a partnership to deliver a three-year programme using sport to improve the prospects of disadvantaged young people in Hong Kong.??
Barclays intends to invest in the region of 5m HKD (£400,000) over three years to train trainers, local teachers and sport coaches to provide sport-based learning opportunities to help improve the health, education and general wellbeing of young people in the region.??
The Barclays Spaces for Sports partnership, supported by Right To Play and Chelsea Soccer School Hong Kong (CSSHK), will use football and basketball to help disadvantaged young people in Hong Kong develop key life skills and ensure a lasting legacy.
The announcement was supported by Chelsea manager André Villas-Boas and Chelsea FC Foundation Ambassador Graeme Le Saux, along with Barclays Ambassador Marcel Desailly – all in Hong Kong for the Barclays Asia Trophy.
??Chelsea FC Foundation will work closely with Right To Play, who will provide the sport for development curriculum following the successful implementation of a Barclays Spaces for Sports programme in Beijing earlier this year.
Chelsea Soccer School Hong Kong will manage the local delivery and relationships in Hong Kong.??
Robert Morrice, chairman and CEO, Barclays Asia said: ‘Since the Barclays Asia Trophy was last here in Hong Kong four years ago our business has grown rapidly making this location increasingly important to us as a firm’.
‘Whilst we are delighted to be involved with such a high profile event, we also recognize that we have to earn the right to do business in the communities in which we operate, and therefore it is important that we contribute and give something back to those communities’.??
Chelsea FC Manager Andre Villas-Boas added: ‘We take our role in the community very seriously at Chelsea and we are delighted to be partnering with Barclays Spaces for Sports here in Hong Kong. Chelsea has been doing some great work on the ground here and with this new funding from Barclays we will be able to reach a wider group of less privileged children through sport’.??
Since its launch in the UK in 2004 with partners the Football Foundation, Barclays Spaces for Sports has created 200 sports sites in disadvantaged areas across the UK benefiting half a million people.
In 2008 it was extended globally with further sites and projects already established in South Africa, the United States, the UK, Spain, Zambia, Zimbabwe, China and India.
More than £37m has been committed to the programme since 2004.
