cleefox
New Member
Never been his biggest fan, but well done. 
"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."
More in the article:
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...anthropists-in-the-premier-league-821997.html
"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."
More in the article:
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...anthropists-in-the-premier-league-821997.html
