Arsenal’s footballers will again swap their traditional red shirts for a white strip as part of the club’s campaign against knife crime.
The kit, which will be worn during the televised FA Cup tie at Oxford United on Monday, will not be made commercially available but a limited number will be given to people who volunteer to help the club’s No More Red campaign.
The initiative, which was launched last year in partnership with adidas, comes after 11,502 knife offences were recorded in London between January and November last year – up on the same period in 2021.
Other partners include The Stephen Lawrence Day Foundation, St Giles Trust and The Ben Kinsella Trust – named after the brother of EastEnders actress Brooke Kinsella who was stabbed to death in north London in 2008.
Each charity and organisation have ten No More Red jerseys to give volunteers who each must donate their time to be eligible.
Arsenal Women will support the initiative by wearing No More Red pre-match training kit and jackets in their derby match at Emirates Stadium against Chelsea on January 15.
Freddie Hudson, Head of Arsenal in the Community, said: “Last year we were proud to launch No More Red with adidas. It provided a unique opportunity to highlight almost four decades of our local community work that has helped to keep thousands of young people safe.
“Throughout 2022, we worked in our local area with adidas, our local authority and our charity partners to build on our support for young people by providing more high quality safe spaces to play sport, access to trusted role models and to shine a light on the positive work being done across our community.
“Young people face multiple challenges as they grow up in today’s world and we don’t have all the answers, but we are confident our work makes a significant contribution to the lives of our participants.
“Our hard work must continue and we’re proud to be building on the achievements of the first year of No More Red by adding more social action projects and a volunteer programme that broadens the reach of this powerful initiative.”
