Kathryn Robinson, head of corporate and community affairs at the Premier
League, believes membership will show that the football industry has moved
away from the "chairman's wife" approach to dishing out donations. "Cash
donations represent less than 10% of Premier League clubs' giving," she
says. "The collective financial value of cash and donations in-kind, as a
percentage of profits, would probably put us at the top of the list of the
UK's biggest givers, and we want to put this information on record."
Individual clubs have been slow to join the scheme. Paddy Harverson, head of
communications at Manchester United, believes this is because of problems
calculating clubs' contributions. "It's hard to place a value on our
fundraising activities," he says. "For example, shirts signed by David
Beckham have been known to fetch £7,000 at charity auctions, but the cost to
the club is only a fraction of that.
"We must ensure we're properly credited, but at the same time it's vital
that clubs don't go too far - such as by using a commercial scale of fees to
estimate the value of players' charity appearances."
CHARITY REPORT FOR UNITED
· Football Aid match raised £70,000,
· Supported the Prince's Trust
· Global fundraising partnership with Unicef
Manchester Utd's Football in the Community Scheme employs 20 staff. In
2001-02, the scheme's outreach and training programmes involved nearly
70,000 children. The club's study support centre provides an out-of-school
learning environment for Key Stage 2 and 3 pupils. Manchester United has
made a three-year commitment to raise £1m for Unicef. In December 2001, the
club's second £250,000 donation went to overseas child education projects.
Sir Alex Ferguson has been appointed special representative to Unicef UK.
During 2001-02, the club permitted nine match day charity collections, and
hosted an abseil event that raised 60,000 for Marie Curie Cancer Care.