World Cup comes second for league's charity!

The World Cup might have kicked off with victory for Brazil but for fans of Marine and the EVO-STIK League’s official charity KitAid, a match on another continent is taking centre stage on Friday.

Before Mexico take on Cameroon in the second clash of FIFA's global tournament, KitAid’s African ambassador club Stegota FC are playing Naajjankumbi Marine, pictured, a few hours earlier in Uganda’s capital city of Kampala for the KitAid Kampala Cup.

The latter adopted the name of the Crosby club after a chance meeting with the game’s organiser, Mariners fan Barry Lenton who is on a one man mission to collect unwanted kit for the charity to redistribute to under-privileged young footballers around the world.

A retired teacher and lifetime supporter, the veteran volunteer set himself a target of collecting 10,000 kits last year and before the end of the season handed over the 10,040th shirt donated by clubs, community groups and individuals from across the North West.

Back in March 2012, he collected seven pairs of football boots from then Ormskirk resident David Sheekey who promised to rename his local team in Najjanankumbi after the Mariners when he returned to Kampala to rejoin his wife. When KitAid, who’ve now donated more than 230,000 items of kit to young footballers in over 30 countries, heard about the new link-up earlier this year they gave their Merseyside volunteer the thumbs up to organise the new cup clash.

Proud Lenton sent out a trophy for the winners to lift and he said: "David put me in touch with one of the Najjanankumbi Marine players, Morris Kasonko, who had a meeting with Stegota's manager, Edwin Nshut, and they arranged a match for the 12th June. Both teams are really looking forward to the challenge because they both play in the third tier of Ugandan football but in different leagues and so have never played against each other."

Kasonko, 19, is one of the club’s star players and would love to play in the EVO-STIK League one day. With the game at Stegota, the hosts are favourites but he is promising to do their adopted club proud. He said: "It is my ambition to come over to England and play for Marine in Liverpool. I have heard a lot about the club and hope we will do justice to the name Marine when we play Stegota."

KitAid’s Derrick Williams, MBE, paid tribute to Lenton and the Mariners for their commitment to their work. "KitAid congratulate Barry on his campaign for kit," said the charity's founder. "He has had such great support along the way from numerous schools, the Merseyside community and Marine FC. Every shirt counts and every shirt will certainly get another lease of life that will mean so much to the child or adult who wears it."

KitAid was founded in 1998 and is supported by Non-League clubs across the country. Former England manager Graham Taylor, OBE, is patron of the charity which became the league's official partner two years ago.

For more information on the work of KitAid visit: www.kitaid.net.