Liverpool Football Club kindly donated 20 tickets to MSDP, to enable members of the Deaf community to attend the Legend Football Match on Saturday 22nd March. Due significant interest, LFC increased to number of tickets to 45.
Everyone really enjoyed the match, and the feedback has been fantastic. The group signed You’ll Never Walk Alone, which was streamed live on TV.
We have been inundated with feedback from the Community regarding the match. One person informed Mandi, our Community Development Officer, that due to tickets prices, they would never have believed they would have been able attend a match. Needless to say it was a very special day for everyone.
We initially formed a close connection with LFC through the Red Caravan project. This is a caravan that has been refurbished and is full of old memorabilia from Liverpool Football Club. Emma Casey (Jimmy Casey’s daughter – ex footballer) asked if she could bring the caravan to MSDP in 2022, as she wanted to capture the experiences of Deaf football fans. Jimmy Casey was deaf, wore hearing aids and experienced many barriers as a player.
Through Emma the Deaf Community were invited to a Q&A event for John Barnes which was interpreted. This was the first time the Deaf Community had ever had the opportunity to do something like this and it was very popular. We were then invited to a further talk by Peter Beardsley.
LFC are really interested in continuing their work with MSDP and continue to invite the Deaf Community to the Q&A sessions with Football Legends. Our next one in April is with Phil Thompson and in May with David Fairclough.
We would like to say a massive thank you to Liverpool Football Club and we look forward to working with you more in the future!
“I absolutely loved attending LFC Legends event. That was 1st time at a football match, and I loved the atmosphere and signing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ It make me so proud to take part.” – Member of the Deaf community who attended the match.
