Top referee backs balls for all offer to keep youngsters active during coronavirus pandemic

With schools still shut for now and social distancing preventing team sports, footballs, rugby balls and basketballs are being donated to the city’s poorest households to ensure children can continue to play sport in some form during the lockdown.

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They are being delivered after people dropping off food and play packages to those in need found some families could not afford to buy a ball for their children.

Former Premier League referee and Sheffield & Hallamshire County Football Association chairman Uriah Rennie is backing the initiative, which the county FA is running in conjunction with Sharrow Community Forum, Pitsmoor Adventure Playground and Woodthorpe Tenants and Residents Association.

He said the opportunity to play sport was important not just for young people’s physical health but for their mental and emotional wellbeing too during the COVID-19 crisis.

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"I am very supportive and excited about this new local initiative. It is proving very beneficial and providing access to resources that can and does improve children’s and young people’s lives,” added Mr Rennie.

People can play sport with other members of their own household or with one person from outside their own household, following a slight easing of the lockdown restrictions this month, and golf courses and tennis courts in Sheffield have reopened.

Patrick Meleady, project adviser at Sharrow Community Forum, said at least 75 balls had already been distributed and they were making a ‘huge difference’ to the young people receiving them.

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