#FootballWelcomes is an initiative by Amnesty UK designed to celebrate those with a refugee background within football, and the role football plays in fostering more inclusive communities.

758 Refugees attended our Red Together Refugee and Asylum Seeker sessions.

324 sessions delivered for refugees across Liverpool City Region.

5 Refugee football tournaments attended.

8th June 2023 – We held our first refugee football tournament, with over 100 players in attendance. Clubs such as Salford, Leeds United, Burnley, Everton, and Shrewsbury brought teams to play alongside 3 of our refugee teams.

16th June 2023 – We attended Burnley in the Community’s Refugee tournament for the second time.

19th June 2023 – Everton in the Community’s Refugee tournament took place as part of Refugee Week. We attended several tournaments throughout the week with different teams playing at each one.

22nd June 2023 – We attended a key networking event held by Serco at Greenbank to promote our work. It was an opportunity to build relationships with several organisations who support the refugee and asylum seeker community groups.

31st August 2023 – Our AXA Academy in collaboration with our Global Works programme, funded by the Premier League Charitable Fund. 20 of our Refugee and Asylum Seeker Football participants took part in a workshop, with Mo Salah paying them a visit to share his wisdom on meeting life goals.

14th September 2023 – In collaboration with our Employability team, we delivered the first Global Works programme with one of our Wirral Met ESOL groups.

27-28th September 2023 – The EFDN conference in Edinburgh allowed us to meet peers from various other European clubs who support and work with refugees.

18th October 2023 – The first refugee derby fixture held between Liverpool and Everton’s refugee teams, in line with the LFC first team fixture.

22nd October 2023 – Our refugee session in Tiber Football Centre, Toxteth L8 kicked off. It has since become our strongest and most attended session with 40-50 participants weekly!

25th October 2023 – Sheffield United hosted a tournament for Black History Month which we attended.

2nd April 2024 – Our First Ramadan Night Tournament took place in collaboration with LJMU. 8 teams gathered to break their fast before competing for the trophy.

7th April 2024 – We hosted our Share Ramadan event at Anfield for the first time, with over 2000 people in attendance to share cultures, traditions and friendships.

With funding support from Islamic Relief, our Inclusion team continues to empower young people and adults in our community. We look forward to increasing our reach to bring life changing opportunities to more individuals in the Liverpool City Region and beyond.

Mathew Murphy, LFC Foundation’s Inclusion Programme Manager said, “Football has the power to bring people together regardless of their background, nationality, or status. Our Red Together Refugee and Asylum Seeker sessions provide a supportive environment for our participants to feel a part of the community, boost their confidence and raise aspirations.”