From Stockport to Southend: Found Football Is Kicking Off Across The Country!

We're proud to be supporting Found Football, the campaign started by Ritchie Beckett to leave free footballs in local parks and playing fields for children to find and use. Over the past few weeks, it's grown from a small local idea into a story that's now made national news, and we've been alongside Ritchie since the start to help make his dream a reality.

Ritchie grew up in Cheadle Hulme, which is in Stockport, Greater Manchester, and now lives just up the road from our Macclesfield HQ in Alderley Edge. The idea came to him while he was working at Deliveroo, where he suggested filling a pitch with footballs as a grassroots giveaway.

Despite his lifelong Manchester United allegiance, he even honoured a pledge recently to leave balls near the home of whichever Manchester club won the derby, dropping them at Bradford Park by the Etihad after Manchester City's 1-0 win.

We worked with Ritchie to design and source the bespoke footballs, incorporating sponsor logos that will rotate with each new batch produced.

The biggest drop yet

Ritchie's biggest single giveaway so far was 100 footballs, which he left on a pitch in St. Thomas' Recreation Ground in Heaton Mersey, Stockport, a clear step up in scale for the campaign.

Frank Bruno joins the campaign

The initiative has even picked up some celebrity support. Former WBC heavyweight champion Frank Bruno delivered footballs to Southchurch Park in Southend-on-Sea and the nearby village of Hockley in Essex, as well as parks in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire. Bruno said he backed the idea because it could give children something worthwhile to do in the park.

Former Premier League footballer Danny Pugh and former England Lioness Amanda Barr have also supported the campaign, and Found Football is now formally registered as a not-for-profit, with new sponsors signing up to fund the new batch of Found Footballs.

National coverage

BBC Essex first covered the story around Bruno's involvement, and BBC Manchester and the Manchester Evening News have now picked it up too, covering Ritchie's own story and the Stockport side of the campaign. Ritchie has said Bruno's support took the campaign to another level, and he's already pledged another 100 footballs for Essex before the end of September, with hopes of taking Found Football nationwide.

Why we're involved

Getting kids out from behind a screen and onto a pitch, playing football or any sport, is exactly what we're here for at ChildrensFootball.com. Found Football does that in the simplest way possible: a ball turns up where a child will find it, and they play. It's grassroots, it's low on process, and it lines up directly with what we've always believed about the value of active, unstructured play.

You can play your part by donating to the Found Football GoFundMe page: GoFundMe.com/f/found-football

We've also put together an exclusive Found Football, available to buy and donate directly. Buy one for yourself, and we'll add a second to the next batch destined for a park near you.

More drops are planned across the North West of England and the whole of the UK, and with backing from a growing number of stars across the sporting spectrum, and both regional and national news coverage behind it, Found Football looks set to keep growing.

Got a park you think deserves a drop, or want to get involved as a sponsor? Get in touch with us.

#FoundFootball

Sources: BBC News, BBC Essex, Manchester Evening News