The ‘Change UK’ Number one candidate to be a MEP serving Southport, Andrea Cooper, has a lifetime of trying to make the lives of the less fortunate better. She is also keen to bring people together since although working as the head of the Liverpool Football Club Foundation, Ms Cooper is a childhood Evertonian.
Andrea recalls: “My family is an Everton family and football was always a big part of my life growing up. Going to school in the 80s, when Liverpool and Everton were winning everything, all the conversation was always about football. It’s such an important part of growing up in Liverpool.”
That grounding in football – even if it was based on the other side of the red/blue divide – has proven vital for a person who now uses the sport and its unrivalled appeal in this city as a way of reaching out to the many children and young people helped by the Foundation. And she doesn’t think it would be like this anywhere else but her hometown.
“We’ve got huge social issues in Liverpool, especially for children and young people. You have one in three children in this city live in poverty and around the stadium in some schools it’s three in five children. But I also know having grown up here that the number one motivating factor for people in this city is football, which isn’t the case everywhere. In some cities, it wouldn’t be the currency.”
Last year, the LFC Foundation worked with over 20,000 people on its programmes, delivered 8,000 sessions and engaged over 150 schools. This is a substantial achievement since the Liverpool Football Club’s official charity was established in 2010 in order to provide a clear strategy for the club’s community work undertaken since 1987.
Ms Cooper’s career began in consumer goods before a desire to ‘make a contribution to the world’ took her into the charity sector, the LFC foundation job, she says, was the realisation of a goal that had been set out many years earlier.
She explains: “I always wanted to make a contribution to the world, and figured that the best way to do that was to be chief executive of a charity. I’ve got a notebook at my parents’ house in Mossley Hill where I’ve written that down – that was my vision. I was really driven in my 20s!”
Just six months after arriving in her new role, Ms Cooper oversaw the biggest charity event the club has ever seen – the remarkably successful All-Star game at Anfield. The likes of Luis Suarez, Fernando Torres, Xabi Alonso and Thierry Henry returned to the hallowed Anfield turf as £1 million was raised.
“That was only possible because of the fantastic contribution of colleagues around the club,” Andrea enthuses. “I’d only been in post a few months and that was a great way for me to realise the potential of the difference we could make. It was a massive highlight.”
Since then, the Foundation has caught the eye with events such as a charity auction offering up unforgettable experiences with first-team stars – including a Brazilian meal with Roberto Firmino, Philippe Coutinho and Lucas Leiva – and a ‘legends’ friendly double-header against Real Madrid.
A strategic partnership with the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine is under development – one of many joint-enterprise ventures involving the charity. The intention of the project is to help appeal to teenage boys in Africa and Asia who don’t want to take the health support available to them, and engage them through the use of football and the LFC brand. It is not just Liverpudlians who are looked after.
Ms Cooper dreams of a ‘fan movement’ inspiring Liverpool supporters to come together to enact social change on the issue they care the most about: children and young people. Children and young people were the strategic focus of the Foundation’s relaunch..
“Being an LFC fan is such an important identifier for people and, as a family, our fans feel motivated to act collectively on the social issues they care about. Fans have told us the social issue they care most about is children and young people – their health, their education and their employment. So, we can be really clear what our purpose is, which is transforming the lives of children and young people,” she says.
“We want fans not just raising money but taking action: Could you offer a work placement? Could you mentor a teenager who is transitioning from education to employment? Could you make sure a child is eating right? We can create a movement of LFC fans around the world who are taking action.”
It does no harm to have such a charismatic figurehead as Jürgen Klopp on hand to help along the way. Jürgen is always available to meet Andrea, and will often field ideas for her and the team to think about. Most recently, he was the brains behind an auction that saw his pitchside outfit sold to the highest bidder in order to help raise funds.
“He’s been a huge supporter,” Cooper says. “He knows that he’s an asset for us and can be a big help to us so we hope to do a lot more with him in the future. He’s got a big heart and at first he didn’t know a lot about the social issues in Liverpool, so when we told him about what we do he was interested in helping. He offers up ideas and will always give me his time – it’s not just lip service, he really believes in what we do.”
Mr Klopp has also taken a strong public position on the EU issue. He has gone on the record as saying that Brexit makes no sense and Britain should vote again in a ‘people’s vote’.
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