Play On The Pitch is a big hit

On Tuesday, May 31, more than 800 people descended on Emirates Stadium for Arsenal in the Community’s annual #PlayOnThePitch event.

The event gives all our participants from a variety of our community programmes the amazing opportunity to play on the hallowed turf where their heroes ply their trade.

Our participants, whose ages ranged from eight to 65, played a mixture of matches and challenges, as well as engaging in educational workshops throughout the day, and they were also joined by Arsenal Academy players Amario Cozier-Duberry, Noah Cooper, Josh Nichols and Hubert Graczyk. The players spoke to our participants, refereed matches and got involved with our activities alongside Arsenal mascot Gunnersauraus, who was on hand to welcome all the groups.

The community projects involved were:

•Premier League Primary Stars

•Premier League Kicks

•Positive Futures

•Football Plus

•NCFE Study Programme

•Islington Care Programme

•Double Club

•Walking Football

•Down Syndrome football with North London United

•Open Access Disability Programme

•Adult Learning Disability Programme

•Premier League Inspires

•Women and Girls only

•Shape Up

•NHS Trust Mental Health Programme

•Coach Development Programme

•Amputee Football

We were also joined by our charity partners from the No More Red campaign in St Giles Trust, Octopus Community Network, Copenhagen Youth Project.

Finally, a huge thank you must go to adidas, Lavazza and Extramarks for donating their pitch time to us, STATSports DNA for kindly giving us GPS tracker vests and also the staff from Arsenal in the Community, Arsenal Academy players and Gunnersaurus, who kindly volunteered their time in making it a special day for all.

You can see more photos from the day here