More than 600 young people from 47 professional football clubs, descended on Hackney Marshes, in East London, last month to take part in the 2014 Premier League Kicks Cup.
It was the first time the finals had enabled every club running a Kicks programme to participate and teams from Plymouth Argyle in the south west to Newcastle United in the North East, from Swansea City in the west to Norwich City in the east were in East London on Saturday October 11.
It was a local team, from West Ham United Community Trust, who lifted the new trophy in the Under-16s’ category, while in the Under-18 girls Millwall, from across the River Thames, emerged triumphant.
Our very own representatives Rifat Prushi had a marvellous day in the capital and after a valiant effort Brentford were unfortunately knocked out in the group stages.
Kicks and Street Sports Co- ordinator Graham Goodden said “I am glad to see the Kicks Cup is back and as usual the whole day was a success."
Participant Deanie Thomas added: “It was a great day, we played against some really tough teams.“
Fellow player Yousef Yahya said: “I really enjoyed playing against the other clubs like QPR.”
Premier League Kicks originated from the Kickz programme, a partnership between the Premier League and the Metropolitan Police that started in 2006 to use the power of football to build safer, stronger communities.
In the past year, the programme which is funded by the Premier League and Sport England, engaged 40,854 young people, who attended in total more than 600,000 times.
Of the 780 venues used for Kicks, more than 25 per cent were located in the top 10 per cent most deprived areas in the country and 73 per cent were in the top 30 per cent most deprived areas.
To view more photos from the day please visit Brentford Football Club Community Sports Trust Facebook page
.