Footballers' wages fund disability sport for a year

Norwich City players have funded a year's worth of disability football sessions after giving up a day's wages for charity.

The donation, understood to be about £80,000, was made to Norwich City Community Sports Foundation (CSF) in February.

Club captain Kenny McLean, who organised the whip-round, visited the charity on Wednesday and also got involved in a kickabout.

"We are very privileged to be in a position where we can make a small difference and we definitely need to use our platform more," he said.

The 34-year-old said he heard CSF's funding had been "in a bit of jeopardy" and helping was a "no-brainer" for the players.

Some of the services that were protected by the money included wheelchair, Down's syndrome and cerebral palsy teams, as well as mental health programmes.

McLean hoped it would be just the start of Canaries footballers supporting the CSF's work more proactively.

"The guys up here work so hard, they do amazing work, give people opportunity and allow people to fulfil their potential," he added.

"There's so much more that we can do and that's a responsibility for me, for the players, for the club to help them."

It has been a busy season for McLean on the pitch.

As well as helping turn his club's fortunes around in the Championship when a relegation fight beckoned, he scored from the halfway line as Scotland qualified for the World Cup finals in dramatic style in November.

Stevie Bramble, CSF's director of educational programmes, said there was no role model "more positive than Kenny".

"Kenny's off to the World Cup in three weeks' time. He could be doing loads of other things, but he's chosen to give up his time [to CSF]," Bramble said.

He presented McLean with Norwich's PFA Community Player of the Year award during the visit, and thanked him for his support.

Bramble added: "All of our provision for disabled [sport] is now secured for another year because of the generosity of the players and Kenny was inspirational in terms of getting them to buy-in."

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