Premier League 'Creating Chances Places for Players' 'Places for Players' is the Premier League’s high profile initiative that uses Premier League stars to highlight the diversity and sheer quantity of community and good cause work being carried out by the 20 Barclays Premier League clubs. The Premier League and its clubs are committed to delivering a whole range of activities aimed at improving people’s lives. The clubs and their players are all extremely active in promoting this work and helping out charities too.

To raise the profile of this fantastic work, the Premier League last season launched ‘Creating Chances Places for Players’, a showcase involving 200 top players across the League. Charities, community groups and other good causes were encouraged to apply to ‘win’ a player to promote their work.

Creating Chances Places for Players kicked off at the start of the 2007/08 season with a high profile national launch in London, attended by every one of the 20 Barclays Premier League clubs.

At the launch, the clubs committed nine players to specific Places for Players appearances during the season. In addition to highlighting existing club community programmes and charity links, three of these appearances were made available to outside organisations to help raise the profile of their work. Any charity or good cause could apply to win a player, as well as a £2,000 donation, and the successful applicants were those that nominated the most unique and relevant roles for the players.

There were thousands of applications from all across the UK and, in addition to the 60 projects that received player visits, there were a further 400 charities or good causes (20 per club) that received a £2,000 cash donation from the Premier League.  

But the stories were provided by projects that the players visited. They ranged from the entertaining to the emotional and every appearance made a difference to those involved. It also served its original purpose - to highlight the extraordinary amount of work that clubs do off the pitch.

This season has seen more of the same from many of the Premier League’s top players, including Theo Walcott, Joleon Lescott, Geovanni, Shuan Wright-Phillips and Michael Owen, among many others.

Club Website will continue to keep you informed of future Creating Chances initiatives but, in the meantime, if you wish to see more on Places for Players events that have taken place this season, or want to find out more about the Premier League's other Creating Chances initiatives, visit:

http://www.premierleague.com/page/creatingchances

Images courtesy of the Premier League.

What was said about Places for Players?

The Players Mark Noble of West Ham United, who visited Richard House Children’s Hospice:  “If it wasn’t for Creating Chances then a lot of players – myself included – would be oblivious to it. It’s opened footballers eyes to what people in real life are going through" Ryan Babel of Liverpool, who took part in an anti-racism workshop for the Anthony Walker Foundation:

“It was important for me to come today because I also suffered from racism when I was younger so I know the feeling. I think Liverpool did a great job to pick me to help with this campaign. I was able to tell the kids about my experiences and how to deal with them.”

The Chairman Niall Quinn, Chairman of Sunderland AFC: “The Creating Chances initiative has been very important. Football as a whole, the Premier League, its clubs and, very importantly, the players must engage with the fans on a meaningful level as they are the ones with the ability to inspire kids.”

The Charity

Barbara Worthy, Manager of St Vincent De Paul Centre, Newcastle:

“It’s been fantastic. Today is so important in raising awareness of the work we do here. We were delighted when we found out we’d been picked. It’s unbelievable for these people to meet Premier League footballers like James Milner and Steven Taylor – they were terrific. It's not just about them supporting us it's the support they give to the people that use us. Often deaf people can feel excluded in society, but today really made them feel part of the community."