Football BIND

When I was at my middle RC school B/W 1975 and 1979 when Nottingham Forest were at their best, they came to our small, Catholic school to play with the teachers :shock: and of course they lost, the teachers that is :roll: and at the end we all got to get their autographs I got loads but as I was doing it cus everyone else did I didn't keep them :roll: I wonder now if any of the top names would ever consider themselves so low as to play against a teacher group of an old Catholic Middle School? They think they are so high and mighty now, but then they'd have been famous but suffered middling incomes. Funny how things turn out

Alison

Plenty of current footballers have lots of involvement in schools and do a lot for charity.

It is part and parcel of the P.R. regime now, as well as a way to give back some genuinely crave.

Somehow BIND it seamed more about getting youth into football rather than now about getting a fast buck along with the millions they already get. Do they even care? from what I read not a jot, there is more care in the next generation as a psycho has for his next victim :roll: it's all about publicity and gain :evil: sorry to be so cynical, BUT??

Alison

From my limited experience, several players I know, they certainly care very deeply.

highlandsflyer":2l41ilcu said:

From my limited experience, several players I know, they certainly care very deeply.

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Do you know personally multi millionaire players, of the top of the latest division teams? or just your lowly professional teams that don't earn the top dollar and have time or inclination to care? Are you best friends with the top of the division? sorry how ever much I respect you and that's a lot, a real lot I don't think the best of the best care tuppence for anyone but thier cars and there reputation not at all for the simple folk and that includes such poverty stricken folk as the queen :roll:

Alison

Well, Rio and Anton Ferdinand (and Les) are part of my family, not just friends. Ian Wright is a friend of my wife's from long before I met her, and Ally McCoist holidays regularly in one of my family's holiday lets.

Just for starters.

Rio's mum and I have collaborated for years on a rental property and I taught him to play chess.

They do a hell of a lot for the kids, from their hearts not just for P.R.

OK you got me there, I'll shrink off into the distance

Alison

When I was a kid David Wilkie came to coach us at our swimming pool. We then had Duncan Goodhew. It certainly inspires.

Rio and Anton have been active in trying to stem gang violence in Peckham and the surrounding area.

I don't think today's footballers are less giving than previous generations.

Perhaps at the top end it is more about individuals than whole teams though.

After one particular night match an oppo of mine decided to let the congestion die down by going for a pint local. he walked back towards an empty dark ground to jib a joe and was suprised to see approx 200 people gathered on the car park, he had a shuftie and it turned out it was Vincent Kompany sat on the bonnet of his mrs car chatting and signing autographs whilst his mrs was pulling her jib by sounding the horn (to retorts along the lines of 'we're not really here' by the assembled mob) intermittently. He told me he remembered looking at his watch and it was exactly 8mins to 12.

Zabaletta attends youth and reserve team matches (home and away) off his own back.
A reporter told an anecdote about the players recently getting picked up from M/c airport after arriving back in the uk from a european game, he said the bentlys arrived being driven by the wags and at least one chaffeur, eventually Zabs bird turned up in her mini.

different sport i know but possibly still poignant....Lennox Lewis had already given £350k to build a boxing/youth club in the west ham area he spent a lot of time growing up in.....when taking plenty of shit about not being proper british champion cause he was'nt actually born here......he only eventually mentioned the club after being slated for not donating a further £350k (to stop it going under) cause it had been maced by the people doing the original begging

http://metro.co.uk/2011/05/10/mario-bal ... -off-6389/

I am not certain, but I think sports people in general tend to want to 'give back'. Could be down to the process of struggling to the top, or possibly an eye on P.R., but it seems clear encouraging kids, often from deprived backgrounds, is part of the whole industry.

Not sure many successful people in any industry nowadays are oblivious to the benefits of good P.R. though.

Footballers in the smaller leagues do a lot of community work, but tend to have less of the spare millions to do much else.