Exclusivee-Think Sport/Covid: "Football clubs were looked upon to go above and beyond" (J. Shiels, Man Utd)

"Like the world, we were surprised by Covid. Foundations are very serious about what they do. We've always planned for Covid to be long-term. As anchor institutions in our cities, football clubs were looked upon to go above and beyond and lead by that way and that's what we've tried to do," said John Shiels, chief executive of the Manchester United Foundation, who participated alongside Maelle Trarieux, CSR director at the Olympique Lyonnais Fondation, and Francesco Calvo, chief operating officer at AS Roma (Serie A TIM) in a webinar entitled "Club Foundations: what roles, objectives and actions related to Covid-19" (in English, see video below), at e-Think Sport 2021 on 26/01/2021.

"For our Foundation our objectives didn't change because of Covid-19. We already had strong relationships with the hospitals and welfare associations in Lyon (FRA). We provided them with exceptional support in March with a lot of donations and we kept in touch with them throughout the year. What has changed maybe is our interactions. Our players cannot visit the hospitals as they used to do before the…