Ahead of the Premier League clash this weekend, and in the lead up to World Down’s Syndrome Awareness Day on Sunday March 21st, we looked at another link between the two clubs, via Fulham FC Foundation and City in the Community.

During the first Lockdown in June 2020, our DisAbility Programme linked with City in the Community Disability participants to compete in a series of online fixtures.

This friendly competition between Fulham’s Down’s Syndrome Badgers and the Man City group began on 12th June 2020 and have since played three online fixtures, and one between both clubs’ Junior Pan DisAbility groups. City hosted the last of this series of Online Fixtures at the end of November 2020 where Fulham were surprised with a special presentation from the City in the Community coaching staff. Nicholas ‘Biggles’ Phillips from City announced he was donating a special miniature Premier League trophy to Fulham, to be shared amongst the Badgers team.

Originally named after the Man City employee who donated the trophy to Nicholas, it was decided that the trophy would be renamed each time it was passed to a new recipient. We decided that the Badgers players would choose their own Fulham Player of the Month from our Foundation weekly online sessions, who would then receive the trophy for the following month.

Nicolas explained: “I named the trophy The Angus Hargreaves Premier League Trophy in the name of Angus Hargreaves, an employee at Manchester City who selflessly gave his personal trophy away for the cause when I was asking for help around the idea of giving it away to Fulham Badgers.

“Giving the trophy out to be passed around was for all participants to speak about who their hero or inspirations in life are and for them to reflect on how much a positive influence football has help them overcome obstacles with help from that hero or inspirational person in mind.”

The first recipient of the trophy was Paul Wakeling. He was selected for his hard work and dedication to the online fixtures, attending all of them and showing a fantastic attitude.

DisAbility Online Activities Bring City & Fulham Together