Soccer Aid England Vs the Rest of the World

Read and listen. Soccer Aid England vs the Rest of the World

Charity in the UK has a long history – Elizabeth I’s Charitable Uses Act was passed in 1601 to specify what money given to charity could be used for. Nowadays more than 166,000 ‘main’ charities are listed on the Charity Commission register in the UK.

An exciting charity event in the UK is Soccer Aid, which was first held in May 2006 to raise money for the children’s charity UNICEF. UNICEF helps children in over 150 countries through emergency work and long-term development.

Soccer Aid was a week of football ending with an exciting live final, in which England was represented by one squad and the Rest of the World by another. Every night for a week the celebrities and World Cup legends were followed in their training by a TV programme, while they battled to win places in the teams for the final.

The England squad was managed by ex-England national football team manager Terry Venables, the Rest of the World squad was coached by ex-Chelsea manager Ruud Gullit, and the players included famous faces like Formula 1 driver Eddie Irvine, singer Robbie Williams, runner Ben Johnson and footballers Diego Maradona and Gianfranco Zola, to name just a few. At the end of the week the best players were chosen for the final by the manager of each squad.

New Horizons Digital 2 • Unit 14 pp.124–125 © Oxford University Press PHOTOCOPIABLE In the big match, the Rest of the World were captained by Scottish TV chef Gordon Ramsay whilst England were led by UNICEF UK Ambassador Robbie Williams.

Robbie Williams said, ‘I have been an Ambassador for UNICEF since 2000 and some of the best moments of my life have been spent with children in Mozambique and Sri Lanka. During my last UNICEF trip, I met so many kids who gave me reasons to smile. Now, through UNICEF, its partners and Soccer Aid, I want to be able to give them something to smile about too.’

The match was refereed by Pierluigi Collina, who retired in August 2005. The final result was that the Rest of the World were beaten 2-1 by England.

New Horizons Digital 2 • Unit 14 pp.124–125 © Oxford University Press PHOTOCOPIABLE So far, over £2.5 million has been raised for UNICEF by Soccer Aid. The money will be used to give children in poor countries help and protection, as well as more tangible things like medicine, clean water, textbooks and mosquito nets.