Football legends Gary Neville and Steven Gerrard have donated £10,000 to the England Women’s Deaf Football Team to help pay for their upcoming tournament.
The World Deaf Football Championships, first started back in 2008, are taking place in Malaysia this September and the England Women’s team needs £100,000 to take part in the competition.
However, sadly the team no longer receives money from the FA after they shifted funding to the futsal team — who, prior to winning the Euros in 2022, were also financially restricted in 2019 — and so must fundraise in other ways if they want to enter the tournament which runs every four years.
With that in mind, Gary Neville and Steven Gerrard generously donated £5,000 each to help send them to the championships in just a few months’ time. Classy stuff, lads.
52 days left to find £37.6k or the England Deaf Women’s Football team can’t go to the World Cup 2023 in Malaysia
Neville and Gerrard have put a total of £10,000 towards sending the Women’s deaf team to the WDFC 2023, just the fourth time the competition has been held.
Speaking to BBC Radio London, current player Claire Stancliffe expressed her gratitude to the England legends, saying that “it’s really nice to have their support” and insisting that she only got in touch with the former Manchester United fullback to ask him to share their appeal on his socials.
Nevertheless, after the Deaflympian and four-time bronze medallist once again made the 48-year-old aware of their financial obstacles, he wasted no time in offering to put £5k towards the fund, with the Liverpool legend quickly matching the donation.
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They are the only footballing figures to offer their support either, as the likes of Everton defender Conor Coady, Crystal Palace women’s player Leigh Nicol and many more have encouraged others to help spread the word and hopefully do their bit.
Whilst I’m really disappointed to hear the news that @GB_DeafFootball women’s team are having to raise money to attend the ultimate dream of a World Cup… it’s really important we all play our small part in making this possible 🙏 https://t.co/viRzzypiH9
Informing the team about the withdrawal of funding last month, the FA justified its position by stating that they wanted to provide more regular international opportunities for players and that numerous conversations with players, staff and other figures in the deaf football community were taken into consideration.
Stancliffe, 34, said, “I’m really disappointed in the decision but at the same time I respect it, I’m just trying to focus on what we need to do now to get the team there.”
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The World Championships start on 20 September and end on 8 October, but even with multiple fundraisers now running, they are still a little ways off the target with just 46 days now left to go.
You can donate to the England Women’s Deaf Football Team fundraiser via GoFundMe or contribute to the Deaf Sports and Football Foundation (DSFF) directly HERE.
Featured Image — Sky Sports/Simon Harris (via Twitter)/BT Sport
Sport
Details released of Andy Burnham’s meetings with Manchester City owners while Mayor
Emily Sergeant
Details of Andy Burnham’s meetings with Manchester City owners during his tenure as Mayor of Greater Manchester have been released.
In case you need bringing up to speed on the situation a little first, Manchester City was found guilty back in September all of its charges related to the Premier League’s financial rules over a nine-season period, and on top of that, was also found guilty of the majority of charges in relation to its failure to co-operate with the League’s investigation.
According to the Premier League, the independent Commission found that Manchester City had arranged so-called ‘sham’ commercial deals with a number of its sponsors.
These were part of a disguised funding scheme – with those sponsors only required to pay a portion of the relevant sponsorship fees.
The remainder was then funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG), which owned the club.
The Commission also concluded, as quoted by the Premier League, that the club had ‘made concerted efforts to stop and frustrate the Premier League investigation’.
Within the past week or so, it has since come to light that now-Prime Minister Andy Burnham had dealings with Manchester City during his tenure as Greater Manchester Mayor, and Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has now issued a public statement, giving details on the matter and what these ‘dealings’ entailed.
A spokesperson for GMCA confirmed that Burnham had a ‘formal meeting’ with Man City Chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, back in October 2021.
The statement reads in full: “In October 2021, Andy Burnham, in his role as Mayor of Greater Manchester, had a formal meeting with Khaldoon Al Mubarak at the UK Government’s Global Investment Summit arranged by the Department for International Trade.
“In his capacity as Mayor, he was a guest of Manchester City FC at home matches on a small number of occasions, including attending Vincent Kompany’s testimonial match in September 2019, where he met the Chairman informally in the stands. These have been declared in the usual way.
“Also during his time as Mayor, representatives of Greater Manchester sporting clubs would routinely join business delegations as part of Mayoral international visits.
“This included representatives from Manchester United travelling to Austin and Dublin, Lancashire Cricket Club joining a delegation to India, and Manchester City FC staff supporting visits to China and Japan.”
Featured Image – Lauren Hurley / Number 10 Downing Street (Press Image via Flickr)
Sport
Multiple arrests made for ‘tragedy chanting’ and police officer assault as Man City defeated Liverpool
Emily Sergeant
Multiple people were arrested over the weekend as Manchester City defeated Liverpool in a Premier League clash.
Merseyside Police have confirmed that a total of 10 people were arrested during the policing operation at Liverpool’s home ground of Anfield as they hosted Manchester City on Sunday 11 October.
One man was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police constable, five were on suspicion of tragedy chanting, one on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly, two for affray, and one on suspicion of throwing items onto the pitch.
Police are now appealing to the public, and are particularly looking to speak to witnesses of the assault of the officer.
At around 6:35pm, as fans left the stadium, a police officer sustained a ‘serious facial injury’ during the arrest of a man on Anfield Road, and was subsequently taken to hospital for treatment but is now recovering at home.
Investigating officers are now conducting enquiries, speaking to witnesses, and analysing CCTV and camera phone footage.
Chief Inspector Leanne Hobin said it’s ‘extremely disappointing’ that an officer has sustained a serious injury while carrying out their duty.
“I hope the arrests send a clear message and act as a deterrent to others,” Chief Inspector Hobin continued. “Anyone who engages in this abhorrent behaviour risks ending up in custody and getting a criminal record.
“Despite the actions of a few, the overwhelming majority of the 60,000 fans in attendance behaved well and I want to thank them for their co-operation.”
Manchester City ended up defeated Liverpool 3-0 during the Premier League clash at Anfield.
Danny Jones -
11th May 2023 
