For the first time in England’s football history, the team will donate their match fees set aside for the World Cup.
This decision means that the team, trained by Fabio Capello will be instrumental in raising over £1 million towards charities such as the Team England Footballer’s Charity Outreach Programme, the PFA, the Bobby Moore Fund, Children’s Hospices UK and WellChild.
Bearing the motto ‘Together we’re stronger’, the poster campaign was launched by the players themselves to create awareness regarding this first-time initiative and charities chosen by them.
John Terry said all the players had agreed to donate the match fees as they all agreed that being given the opportunity to represent their country was a privilege enough, and thus did not feel right to be paid for it as well. Therefore, the decision to make the donation towards charity was a unanimous one.
The team left for Austria on Sunday morning for a training camp. Five players involved in the FA Cup final on Saturday and Gareth Berry stayed back. They are due to the join the rest of the team on the 2nd of June. Meanwhile, they will work under Capello’s acclimatization programme which is fashioned around playing football at altitude. The five players who stayed back are David James, John Terry, Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole and Joe Cole.
The players in Austria will return to England on Sunday, when they are scheduled to play a friendly match against Mexico at Wembley. The 26th of May will see them going back to Austria in order to finish off their preparations before the big game. They have another friendly match in Graz on May 30th, which is against Japan.