The shirt of your back is wanted …

This is nothing new, appeals like this have been done before but if you are clearing out the drawers, shelves, wardrobes etc, etc & you come across those football/sport shirts you no longer want how about sending them to a most deserving cause?

The FSF (Football Supporters Federation) have teamed up with their Euro counterparts The FSE (Football Supporters Europe) to coordinate a shirt recycling scheme.

Further down this piece text is taken from their various websites which should explain it all, failing that just post your unwanted clobber direct to the FSF & they will send it on.

Or if you want to wait to donate the National Football Museum in Manchester are thinking about doing a shirt amnesty in the early part of next year, this years appeal was a great success.

The following is an email reply from the FSF

Hi,

Well done on that, mate. We’re more than happy for shirts to be sent to us, if that helps, and we can deal with them from there.

However, it’s worth noting that it’s not really intended to be one central appeal with stuff to be collected together and all sent to one place – there’s also an option for shirts etc to be used among refugee communities closer to home.

We’ve been thinking of linking up with the North East Refugee Service locally, and maybe there’s a similar organisation nearer to you that you’d prefer to link up with?

All of that can be done under the umbrella of the Second Fan Shirt appeal.

Of course, it’s still an option to send to us for despatch abroad, as one other idea was to send the shirts to war zones (although we’d have to be careful, as getting stuff to refugee settlements in such areas can be tricky, and many aid agencies – understandably – prioritise stuff other than football shirts, such as food and medical supplies, with the transport they have available.

There’s an element of choice for you there; our address should you choose to use it is below.

And please keep us informed about what you decide and how it goes, so that we can try to help promote it.

Best wishes,

Kevin Miles
Chief Executive

The Football Supporters’ Federation

1 Ashmore Terrace, Stockton Road, Sunderland, Tyne & Wear, SR2 7DE.

The FSF is affiliated to Football Supporters Europe and our friends at FSE have launched a donation campaign called All Colours Are Beautiful! (#secondfanshirt). It’s part of the FARE Action Weeks and gives fans a chance to help those in desperate circumstances. The idea is fairly simple, fans clear their closets of old club gear while helping clothe refugees. FSE explain more…

The frightening war scenarios across the world are leaving millions of people stranded close to war zones. Some are still living in a conflict region under desperate conditions, like in Ukraine, while others fled to our neighbourhoods from war zones to save their lives, like those from Syria. And some of them are members of FSE.

Most are left with nothing more than the set of clothes they were wearing when they fled. We believe that giving these people all possible support is one of the most pressing issues of our time.

Many football fans all over Europe are already active in supporting refugee projects as a matter of social responsibility in many different ways: be it through organising clothing collections for refugees, providing logistical help, or by using football to help them intergrate into their new communities.

Our initiative “Second Fan Shirt” is not intending to reinvent the wheel – if there are already similar initiatives in existence in your country, we’d encourage you to engage in similar actions to make the life of refugees and the football lovers among them a little better.

Donate your Second Fan Shirt!

We are calling on supporters across Europe to get active and donate (or organise) clothing that has been getting dusty in your cupboards: jerseys, scarves, blankets, training jackets, woolly hats, trousers, footballs, bed sheets…literally any football merchandise that you don’t need anymore but which could be useful for brightening up the days of kids and adults in the refugee centers.

The situation of refugees is different from country to country. Some countries in Europe are more directly affected and closer to the actual wars than others. Hence, it is down to the national or local initiative, which kind of support/donation scheme they want to adopt.

Some might want to organise clothing collections at their club, others will do the same at national level in cooperation with first aid charities, some might want to send things to refugees directly in refugee camps in the war zones, others might want to go to refugee centers in their communities or sell their donations in auctions to support projects financially.

It is easy to take part, and every form of donation is welcome! Let’s show together that football supporters stand side-by-side in support with the refugees as the most tragically affected victims of conflicts around the world.

More from Football Supporters Europe (FSE):

Remember….. we are all …..

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