England team to play for free
The players are enthusiastic about the new initiative
Also In The News
|
Lewis Hamilton has claimed that he would quit McLaren if he felt that there was ever any bias towards team-mate Fernando Alonso. |  |
Saturday, 09, Jun 2007 10:18
England players plan to donate all the money they receive for playing international football to charity after setting up a fund themselves.
The charity is to be called Team England Footballer's Charity and the players will donate the money they receive from the Football Association to the cause.
The players hope to raise £1 million over the next four years and will make personal appearances for a variety of charities.
England captain John Terry said: "Every player in the England squad works in some way with local or national charities but as a team we decided to use our role as England footballers to not only contribute money and our time but to help raise awareness of particular issues. Every player to a man is looking forward to supporting our charity."
A group of seven senior players will make up a committee to represent the whole squad and they will decide which causes will benefit from the contributions made by the players.
There will be gala events during years when there is a major tournament and players could even donate their bonuses.
England currently reward each player £1,500 for every international they win.
David Beckham's manager Terry Byrne said: "Some people will look at this and say, 'Hang on, what's £50,000 to someone who can earn that in a week?'. But the players did not have to do this. They chose to. They wanted to do some good."
The Bobby Moore Fund to help combat bowel cancer and the Professional Footballers' Association charity are expected to be amongst the beneficiaries as well as children's charities.