The FA to donate England training kit and armbands to the Legion
10 November 2011
The FA has announced today that it will be donating the training tops, national anthem jackets and armbands embossed with the poppy worn by the England senior squad to The Royal British Legion to auction and raise further funds for this year's Poppy Appeal.
People will be able to bid for the items via eBay at: http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/theroyalbritishlegion
The items will be available live after the final whistle on Saturday, on a one week listing.
Saturday's game against Spain will be in front of a sell-out Wembley crowd of 90,000 and poppy collectors will be at the stadium to allow fans to donate if they wish. The chart topping band The Soldiers will also be on the pitch at half time to sing the official poppy single 'Ive gotta get a message to you' with all the proceeds from the sales going to the appeal.
The FA Chairman, David Bernstein, said: "We are delighted to be able to help The Royal British Legion with its fundraising efforts for this year's appeal and to be able to show our respect for our troops by marking Remembrance Day at Saturday's match."
The FA has been working closely with The Royal British Legion to ensure that Remembrance Day will be appropriately marked. The following has been agreed:
- The England players will wear black armbands embossed with the poppy during the game at Wembley
- The FA will place a poppy wreath on the pitch during the national anthems
- There will be a one-minute silence ahead of kick-off
- Players will wear training tops with embroidered poppies on match day
- Players will wear poppy-embossed anthem jackets during the national anthems
- Military representatives will be in the presentation party prior to kick-off
- The FA has donated 500 England v Spain tickets to 'Tickets for Troops', for members of the Armed Forces and 1,000 tickets for the England v Sweden game on Tuesday
- The England senior squad will train at Wembley on Friday ahead of the Spain game. They will observe the two-minute silence at 11am, all wearing training tops with poppies. This session will be broadcast live
- The poppy will be visible around Wembley on Saturday, on the scoreboards and advertising boards, and poppy collectors will be in the stadium to allow supporters to donate to the Poppy Appeal and show their support
- On Thursday, England Under-21s play Iceland in Colchester and England U19s play Denmark in Brighton. All players and staff will be wearing poppies pre- and post-match and black armbands embossed with the poppy during the games
- Both the Under-21s and U19s will observe a one-minute silence, too, at their games - the Under-21s will do so alongside troops from Colchester barracks.
