EVERTON’S official charity has won a top award at the ‘sporting Oscars’.
Everton in the Community’s disability programme scooped the Best Community Programme category at the 2011 Sport Industry Awards at London’s Battersea Evolution on Wednesday evening, beating Adidas, Manchester City, the Football Foundation, Premiership Rugby and the Cricket Foundation to the accolade.
The Sports Industry Awards, which this year celebrates its 10th anniversary, are attended by the glitterati of the European sporting world and recognise the best sport has to offer across a number of areas including marketing, PR, advertising and community.
Among those present on Wednesday evening were Ricky Hatton, Alan Shearer, James Cracknell, Amir Khan and David Seaman.
The judging panel, which included the BBC’s John Inverdale, paralympian Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson and Alistair Campbell, former chief press secretary to the Prime Minister, said Everton’s scheme was ‘single minded, highly impactful, and addressed an important social issue.’
The award was collected from Olympic gold medallist Denise Lewis and World Cup winner Geoff Hurst by Steve Johnson, who runs the disability programme and Steven Raynor, Everton in the Community’s deputy CEO.
There are currently 26 successful disability teams representing Everton, which field a total of eight international players
