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FOOTBALL'S CHARITABLE STATUS

Independent, The (London), May 7, 2008 by Glenn Moore

If stories about players giving generously invite cynicism, the one about Craig Bellamy setting up a Pounds 650,000 academy in Sierra Leone was met with disbelief. But, writes Glenn Moore, such responses are often unfair and there is much to applaud in this modern sporting trend If stories about footballers giving generously tend to invite cynicism, the one about Craig Bellamy donating Pounds 650,000 was initially met with disbelief. But, writes Glenn Moore, such responses are often unfair and there is much to applaud in this modern sporting trend

Philanthropists in the Premier League

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A certain cynicism usually descends whenever footballers' charitable projects are mentioned. For many people, a sport which pays its elite participants tens of thousands of pounds a week is never going to invest enough in the wider community. When it does contribute to society, the gesture is frequently dismissed as a publicity stunt.

Sometimes this is justified. Last season Chelsea made a donation to the agencies - two hospitals and a brain injury charity - which saved Petr Cech's career, maybe his life, after the goalkeeper's head injury at Reading. Timed to co-incide with their FA Cup final press day, when dozens of reporters and photographers were at the club's training base, Cech presented three outsize cheques, the sort used by pools companies, for 1,000 each. The money came not from the player, who is paid in excess of 50,000 a week, nor from the club, which has spent 400m-plus on transfers in five years, but from supporters who had bought photographs of Cech. It was so embarrassing most reporters kept well clear.

Chelsea can justifiably point out they have helped raise more than 1m for their national charity partner, CLIC Sargent, in the last two years, money which makes a real difference to the children's cancer charity. Like many clubs, they also have a well- resourced football in the community scheme. A 2005 audit by Deloitte & Touche put the community spend of Premier League clubs in excess of 80m a year. Clubs were, nevertheless, criticised last year for their limited cash donations by the charity advisory website intelligentgiving.com (the bulk of Chelsea's 1m contribution to CLIC Sargent, for example, has been raised through "leverage", giving their name, or players' time, to encourage others to give cash). As Dave Pitchford, one of the founders, said: "The most useful thing to charities is hard cash. Celebrity visits and free [or subsidised strips] are valued, but they don't pay the bills." And they don't cost much.

Given this backdrop, Craig Bellamy's involvement in Sierra Leone, announced yesterday, is truly remarkable. The West Ham striker, previously best-known for a string of controversial incidents at both football clubs and nightclubs, is to invest 650,000 of his own money into creating an entire football structure in the benighted west African nation.

There would be less surprise if the player were Aston Villa's Nigel Reo-Coker or Liam Rosenior, of Reading, as they are of Sierra Leone descent, but Bellamy knew nothing of the country before travelling there in June, alone but for a big bag of footballs. Liverpool, his club at the time, even refused to insure him, Sierra Leone having only recently emerged from a civil war which required the intervention of British troops. It also ranks bottom in Unicef's measure of child mortality and of the United Nations' Human Development Index.

Bellamy initially decided to set up an academy. Tom Vernon, Manchester United's scout in Africa, who is involved in a similar project in Ghana, conducted a feasibility study. His conclusion was that Bellamy would have to create a youth league as well, as there was no way of assessing potential academy recruits at present. Thus, in six months it is hoped 14 leagues, involving 68 teams, will begin. As part of the initiative, coaches will be trained while children will be taught HIV/Aids awareness and encouraged to go to school. Their teams will be rewarded in each case with league points.

Bellamy stressed he will not be making money out of the scheme. Africa is littered with "academies", many run by agents who are mainly interested in selling players to Europe. Bellamy's scheme is more akin to Diambars, the Senegalese academy founded by Patrick Vieira, former Hammers' goalkeeper Bernard Lama, ex-Hibernian's defender Jean-Marc Adjovi-Boco and local player Saer Seck. Like Diambars, Bellamy intends to educate the students in more than ball skills so those graduates who fail to find footballing employment emerge equipped to play a role in developing the country.

While most footballers remain more interested in building a designer mansion in Cheshire or buying an even faster sports car, Bellamy's altruism is part of a slowly growing trend. Robert Green, one of Bellamy's team-mates at Upton Park, is going to Uganda this summer to work with the African Medical Research Foundation.

It is a long way from the cheesy visits to hospitals at Christmas time (which, incidentally, still go on and are much welcomed by the children involved) and reflects the growing financial power of footballers and their greater worldliness, a by-product of the globalisation of the Premier League.

FOOTBALL'S CHARITABLE STATUS

Independent, The (London), May 7, 2008 by Glenn Moore

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