Leendert Coene from Antwerp and Max Keens from London have organised a fund-raising run between all 20 English Premier League football grounds. All the money raised from their “Run4Africa” will be given to Project Africa FC, a charity that funds the provision of football pitches in several African countries. Leendert Coene told VRT News that his English friend will be running the equivalent of more or less one marathon a day.
Antwerp man organises run between English football grounds to raise money for sustainable football pitches in Africa
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Leendert and Max set up Project Africa FC in 2021. Since then their charity has financed a total of 5 football pitches in Uganda, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo. They now aim to provide 2 new pitches every year.
Leendert Coene told VRT News that "8 yers ago I taught Children in Ghana. I saw them playing football on gravel and tarmac. A couple of years ago I decided to do something to raise funds for the provision of grass football pitches there”.
Leendert Coene points out that playing football together with other children can be very important in a child's development.
A marathon a day
To fund future projects, Leendert and Max have launched Run4Africa. Between 1 June and 5 July they will travel between all 20 English Premier Legue grounds. They will start at the most northerly ground, Saint James Park, that is home to Newcastle United. Run4Africa will end in the UK capital London that is home to several Premier League clubs.
“We will start at St James’ Park in Newcastle and finish in London. Max will do this on foot, which amounts to about a marathon a day. I will follow him in a camper van together with our personal cameraman.”
“We want to do something that has never been done before. By organising it in England we will get more attention from the media and we want that as the aim is to raise money for our project. We are also working with corporate sponsors and the football analyst Gilles Mbiye-Beya is our ambassador. We hope to raise enough money to finance our next 2 or 3 football pitches."