Having already given 44 disadvantaged children from Seville and Liverpool an unforgettable experience by offering them the chance to be player escorts at the second leg of the two UEFA Europa League semi-finals, FedEx also donated 100 match tickets for last months final at St. Jakob-Park to community football projects in Basel and the surrounding area.
Among the 100 young fans, 22 children aged between seven and nine had the privilege of walking out onto the pitch alongside the two teams as player escorts. FedEx, is the main sponsor of the UEFA Europa League and has donated its entire allocation of player escort places for the final between Liverpool FC and Sevilla FC to the UEFA Foundation for Children.
The recipients of the 100 match tickets were chosen in cooperation with streetfootballworld, a global non-profit organisation that uses football to drive social change, and its local partner, the Scort Foundation.
Children from four community football projects in the streetfootballworld network had been selected:
- Dream Team Basel, which organises weekly football training for children and adults with disabilities;
- SRD Young Stars, an initiative set up by Swiss club SR Delémont, which benefits 21 children with special needs between the ages of 8 and 18;
- Basel Helps, a project set up in 2015 which organises regular activities and events to build bridges between refugees and the local community;
- the Pestalozzi Children’s Village, which provides homes, care and education to children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The UEFA Foundation for Children has also donated 90 tickets to the Swiss Football Association, which has given them to Next Sport Generation, a foundation that promotes sport for children and adolescents.
“In its first year, the UEFA Foundation for Children has benefited a large number of children in a wide range of places,” said Peter Gilliéron, a member of the foundation’s board of trustees and the Chairman of the UEFA Fair Play and Social Responsibility Committee. “This initiative gives football the opportunity to share important values such as solidarity, integration and respect with all children, regardless of their country of origin or social background.”