Premier League side, Stoke City, are to show their support for the Asian Football Confederation’s One Goal campaign during the Barclays Asia Trophy 2015. The Potters will wear shirts bearing the One Goal logo throughout the tournament in Singapore and will first wear it in the opening game of the Barclays Asia Trophy when they play Everton on Wednesday July 15.
The partnership is in line with the Premier League’s Mutual Cooperation Agreement that it signed with the AFC in March 2014. Then the two organisations agreed they would work closely together in the areas of social and commercial development – One Goal was central to this.
One Goal is a campaign that aims to use the power of football to raise awareness of child malnutrition in Asia. It is estimated that more than 200 million children across Asia are prevented from leading a healthy, active life because of poor nutrition.
The Asian Football Confederation and World Vision, backed by the Premier League, have teamed up to create One Goal - a program to build awareness of the issue and tackle the contributing factors.
Stoke City, who are taking part in the Barclays Asia Trophy for the first time, have already provided support to One Goal by helping to develop a specific nutrition module for football coaches and have taken their support further by inviting One Goal to adorn their shirts for the tournament.
City’s Chief Executive Tony Scholes said: “It’s a staggering statistic that one quarter of Asia’s 350 million children under the age of five are underweight.
One Goal aims to use the power of football to promote, fund and push for programmes to be introduced that will look to make that statistic history.
Football is enormously popular in Asia and we’re delighted to be able to use our participation in the Barclays Asia Trophy 2015 to help publicise and endorse the One Goal message.”
Asian Football Confederation Deputy General Secretary Dato’ Windsor John, added: “The AFC is happy to see Stoke City FC support the One Goal campaign, raising awareness of child malnutrition through the power of football. Every child deserves the possibility to play football, regardless of social status, and health and appropriate nutrition are the very basic requirements for this."
Stefan Germann, Executive Director of One Goal, said: “Football fans in Asia and around the world have the power through the One Goal movement to get good nutrition to every child, it is great to see Stoke City FC so actively supporting this movement.”
