Middlesbrough FC to highlight dangers of knife crime by wearing white
The club will be ditching the red strips just for one day this weekend
People are being urged to ditch Middlesbrough FC's red shirt and wear white this weekend to highlight the dangers of knife crime.
The team will be wearing a one-off all-white strip tomorrow as part of a campaign to raise awareness and funds.
The money will go to the Chris Cave Foundation, a Teesside charity that supports victims of violent crime.
Its founder, Theresa Cave, said: "We've got all the little kids going on to the walk-on but some of them have been affected by knife crime, some of them are from the community. We've got 10 of them going to walk on, we've got the parents going, we've got ourselves and some of our team going. There'll be a bucket collection there for us as well.
"The white strips are lovely and they're going to be auctioned off. It's where we're going to get some funding from, hopefully to be able to do what we do as well. It's been great. I'm shattered. It's been an absolutely mad couple of days.
"There's so much negativity around this and I'm glad I've got this opportunity to explain to the public that it isn't to do with racism. It isn't to do with anything else but knife crime.
"It's for one day. They're taking the red out of their uniform because the red represents the bloodshed, so if they take the red out, there's no bloodshed. That's what it represents and I'd love for the public to turn around and have a different view on it and support it as much as they can.
"No-one's forcing anyone not to wear the red shirt, let's get that clear. But we wanted to see people in white. It's just for an impact for one day to stand up and say 'look, we're wearing white for knife crime, that's the only reason we're wearing it for.' It's for a good campaign that could impact on lots of young people.
"We're not saying it'll stamp knife crime out but it's a start. It's a brilliant way to start. It's one of the biggest campaigns that's been done in Cleveland with us as well and I think it would be lovely to have the public behind us."
No More Red campaign
Middlesbrough FC said: "We will be shelving our traditional red shirt on Saturday in a bid to highlight the dangers of knife crime.
"The team will be wearing an all-white strip for the visit of Coventry City and are urging fans to show their support for the campaign by leaving their red shirts and scarves at home for the game to make it a No More Red day at the Riverside.
"In addition, the club are also delivering a powerful message in the form of an anti-knife crime poem, written by Academy youngster Jacob Krishnan. The nine-year-old joins staff and players from both the Mens and Womens teams in reading the words."
The club is keen to play a leading role in highlighting the dangers of knife crime in an area where:
- A third of all knife crimes in Cleveland involve young people aged 24 and under.
- 57% of all serious violence in Cleveland involved a knife or a bladed weapon.
- 186 people aged 24 and under were victims of a crime involving a knife or a bladed weapon in the Cleveland Police area.
- 63 young people were caught carrying a knife or a bladed weapon.
The above statistics are from August 2023 to the end of July 2024
Helena Bowman, MFC Head of Business Operations and Community, said: "This is a very serious issue affecting our community. We want to highlight this and make people aware of the dangers and the effects this has on the lives of people.
“We hope that changing our strip at the Riverside and by creating awareness of this problem, and asking our fans to do the same and not wear their usual colours, will have an impact on people and make them think twice.”
The one-off all-white kit, supported by the club’s Principal Partners Kindred, BOXT, and Host & Stay, along with Elms and the EFL, will be used to raise funds for the Chris Cave Foundation, a local charity which supports victims of violent crime, and for the MFC Foundation’s Kicks scheme. It will only be available via an auction.
The players will also wear warm-up t-shirts bearing the name of the charity, and the club's matchday programme will be devoid of colour.
Founder of the charity, Theresa Cave said: “The Chris Cave Foundation works extremely hard educating young people on the issues around violent crime. We show the dangers, consequences and ripple effect of knife crime, gun crime exploitation and county lines.
“We are overjoyed to have been chosen by MFC to join their campaign against knife crime and to be supported through funds raised which will be an enormous help to our work.”