Football bosses support youth mental health

The League Managers Association has announced a new partnership to make a positive impact on young people in grassroots football.

The collaboration with the organisation representing football managers and Laureus will see funds raised for Laureus Sport for Good, and resources and expertise developed for elite football managers, adapted to positively impact the mental wellbeing of young people in grassroots programmes worldwide.

The most recent Laureus Sport for Good Annual Review revealed mental health is the fastest increasing issue among the children who are participating in Laureus’ network of more than 300 programmes, across 42 different countries. 

The new partnership between the LMA and Laureus Sport for Good will see the same mental health expertise and approach used by Premier League, EFL, WSL and Women’s Championship football managers positively impacting the lives of more than 240,000 children across the Laureus programmes.
 
Laureus coaches will have access to a vast range of mental health and wellbeing resources and educational tools, through the LMA’s Institute of Leadership and High Performance, which have been designed by the LMA’s team of expert clinicians and consultants and and designed to help them support the mental health of the children they work with.
 
The association’s chair, and former Sunderland boss Martin O’Neill, said: “This is an important and exciting charity partnership for us at the LMA and over the next three years, we’ll be working with a world-leading sport for development organisation in Laureus Sport for Good, offering support, resources and educational tools to their wide network of Sport for Good programmes.”

Laureus Sport for Good was founded in 2000 to use sport as a driver for societal change and has impacted more than six and a half million children and young people. 

The LMA, which was established in 1919, is the collective, representative body of the managers, past and present, from the Premier League, EFL, WSL and Women’s Championship. 

Former Newcastle United manager Ruud Gullit, who is also a Laureus Academy and LMA member, welcomed the partnership between the two organisations.

The ex-Chelsea and Netherlands midfielder, who was in charge at St James’ Park for a year in 1998, said: “I joined the Laureus Academy in 2017, and it has been a privilege, over the last seven years, to see, and be a part of, the incredible work done by the programmes supported by Laureus Sport for Good. 

“As an LMA member, I am also part of a progressive organisation that strives to have a positive impact on the game and the wider community.”

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