The Liverpool FC Legends v Barça Legends game, scheduled for Saturday March 28, was cancelled in July due to the ongoing restrictions and uncertainty regarding its rescheduling.
As a result of the fixture being cancelled, every fan was provided with the opportunity to have a full refund or to donate all or part of their ticket refund to LFC Foundation to help support the COVID-19 recovery response work across the Liverpool City Region.
Additional donations totalling £47,000 have also been generously made by LFC’s matchday boardroom members and executive lounge members to LFC Foundation.
All the donations will help to fund the three key areas of the club’s COVID-19 recovery response work, including food poverty, mental health and unemployment.
Through the ongoing partnership between the club’s community team Red Neighbours, St Andrew’s Community Network – home of North Liverpool Foodbank – and Fans Supporting Foodbanks, the recovery response work will support the ongoing need at the city’s Trussell Trust foodbanks as well as helping to develop Your Local Pantries.
Your Local Pantries is a sustainable long-term option for local communities, which provides members with a dignity of choice, and through a weekly membership fee of £3.50 they can choose food with a value of up to £25 per week.
The mental health support work will focus on early intervention support and signposting to specialist crisis providers when required. The priorities will be supporting children, young people and families who may be at risk of being tipped into crisis as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The unemployment support work will offer training, mentoring and signposting in both a virtual and physical capacity. A particular area of need is around youth unemployment, with estimates predicting that more than one million 16 to 25-year olds will be unemployed by the end of 2020.
Matt Parish, LFC Foundation director, said: “On behalf of the LFC Foundation I would like to thank everyone who kindly made a donation to our charity. I am overwhelmed by the generosity and support from our fans and it gives me great pride to be a part of the LFC family.
“It’s amazing that this huge donation has been raised from the refunds of just one game, and it will make such a difference across our city region, which has been hit hard by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.”
Simon Huthwaite, operations manager at St Andrew’s Community Network, added: “This fantastic support from the LFC Foundation and fans of LFC is a real godsend.
“This donation gives a huge boost to the rollout of Your Local Pantries across the north Liverpool area and will help strengthen our communities and provide a lifeline for people in chronic food poverty. We really can’t thank you enough.”
Dave Kelly from Fans Supporting Foodbanks said: “With food insecurity commonplace within our communities, the demands on foodbanks has become ever greater during this pandemic. Our core activity has always been our matchday collections. Unfortunately, this opportunity is no longer an option during the COVID-19 lockdown.
“However, with the ongoing support of LFC, Red Neighbours, LFC Foundation and the wider fanbase we have been able to continue our work. A perfect example of collaboration between supporters and club. Not just champions on the pitch but champions off it.”