Football Legends and Celebs Head for Prenton Park

Some of the former stars of world football and celebrities from various walks of life will grace Prenton Park later this year as part of trio of charity football games organised by former Rovers and Liverpool midfielder Jason McAteer.

Following on from the success of his Soccer Aid game at Anfield back in 2004 which raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for victims of the Boxing Day 2003 Tsunami in Asia, former Rovers midfielder Jason McAteer is once again busy organising another, possibly bigger event for 2009/10 and this time Tranmere will be a big part of it.

The event this time around will see three Legends/Celebrity matches played - one on each of the three Merseyside pitches at Anfield, Goodison Park and of course Prenton Park and it is hoped that stars such as Marcel Desailly, Zinedine Zidane and Lothar Mattheus will make an appearance in at least one of the games.

Zinedine Zidane Could Make an Appearance at Prenton Park

The first match is to be played at Goodison Park on Saturday 23rd May with the other two dates yet to be confirmed but with Tranmere's Prenton Park thought to be next in line later in 2009 and Anfield staging the finale sometime in 2010.

The three-match event organised by McAteer and his mate Steve McMananan has been labelled CAUSE (Children's Aid Using Soccer Events) and the three designated charities that will benefit are said to be Liverpool Unites, Save The Children and The Prince's Trust.

In addition to these three Charities, some money will also be made available to each of the three Club's staging the games for use for their own charitable purposes.

Co-organiser of the event Dave Lockwood told the media....

"We raised in excess of $550,000 last time.  It is dangerous to set numbers, but I think we would hope to raise $1m over three games this time."

McAteer himself added.....

"We only got the go-ahead for the game on Tuesday but we have been going through Macca's (Steve McManaman) little black book ever since.  We have spoken to showbiz stars like Gordon Ramsay, Tim Lovejoy and Chris Evans, while Westlife stars Nicky Byrne and Shane Filan have already confirmed their participation in the first match."

"The concept of the game is to get the three clubs uniting together in a common cause.  Four legends from each of the three clubs will form a Merseyside team, against a European All Stars team.  The event will be an entertainment showpiece as well as a football match."

Although McAteer recently took a  trip out to the areas affected by the 2003 Tsunami to see how the money raised was being spent, McAteer admitted that issues closer to home are the inspiration behind this latest idea....

"When Rhys Jones was shot and killed it touched everyone.  His parents have maintained the utmost dignity at an incredibly difficult time and they hope to spread positive messages across the country, educating young people of the dangers of knife and gun crime.  They are looking to build a youth centre for local children so we offered to help with that as well. Benefiting Liverpool Unites sort of made sense."

Tranmere Rovers Chairman Lorraine Rogers was delighted that Tranemre are able to support such an event adding....

"Tranmere Rovers are delighted to be able to be a part of this event which is uniting the three Merseyside clubs to raise funds for three worthy causes.  We look forward to welcoming the teams to Prenton Park in the future."

Soon to depart Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry, who gave the go-ahead for the original Tsunami match to be played at Anfield, said:

"We're delighted to have been involved from day one.  By anybody's analysis the original tsunami match was a massive success and surpassed everyone's wildest dreams and showed just what can be achieved.  The motives are genuine and heartfelt and we hope this will be just as successful."

Total Tranmere will bring further news on these three matches when we have it so stay tuned!