In 2022, LALIGA teamed up with Bloomsbury Football, a London-based football charity using the power of football
to support young people in London. The goal was to use the power of the Spanish League to create new opportunities for Bloomsbury Football’s players and get more young people in London on the pitch.

Since opening their London office in 2020, LALIGA’s goal has been to support organisations using the power
of sport to change lives. The LALIGA x Bloomsbury Football partnership is a multi-year agreement where LALIGA supports the London-based charity with their pioneering work in communities across London. The charity’s main goal is to use the power of accessible
weekly football sessions to improve young people’s mental and physical health, teach life skills and foster community cohesion. Bloomsbury Football currently works with over 5,000 young people in the capital each week.

More recently, LALIGA’s focus has been supporting Bloomsbury Football’s programme for young Refugees and Asylum
Seekers. Bloomsbury Football’s Refugee & Asylum Seeker programme provides a safe space for young footballers to have fun and build friendships while developing both their football and language skills. The aim of the programme is much the same as Bloomsbury
Football’s mainstream sessions: to use the power of football to support young people to gain new skills, new friends and self-confidence. With this programme, the charity has partnered with community organisations such as Families4Peace to engage refugee communities.

Young Refugees and Asylum Seekers have become a part of the weekly LALIGA x Bloomsbury Football League. Every
Saturday, they have the chance to play football for free with other young Londoners, wearing the kit of a LALIGA team. At these sessions, there is “a real sense of community” and the players feel “part of the city they’re living in”.

Bloomsbury Football’s founder & CEO, Charlie Hyman, shared how the Refugee & Asylum Seeker Programme has been
created specifically to reach more difficult parts of the community and build engagement:

“For example, at one of our Refugee & Asylum Seeker sessions, we walk children from the hotel they are living
in with their families, to the session, feed them dinner, lead their session, then walk them back to their hotel, as we wouldn’t be able to reach them the same way if we didn’t pick them up.”

Some of the Ukrainian players who have joined the league through the Refugee & Asylum Seeker programme include:

Yaroslav (aged 11) – grew up in Kharkiv, Ukraine and moved to London last year:

Yaroslav’s mother stated that
“In Kharkiv, in peaceful times, football played an important role for Yaroslav and he played for the local team from the age of 5. When we arrived in London, I wrote to Bloomsbury and the next day he was on the football field again – he was immediately
accepted into the team”.

Yaroslav went on to say how much he loves coming to Bloomsbury every Saturday;
“it’s fun and I’m making new friends here, and usually my team is winning; when I first came here, I had no friends, but now I have lots of friends”. His favourite part about living in London is playing football.

Yehor (aged 10) grew up in Kyiv, Ukraine and moved to London early last year:

Yehor was offered the opportunity to join Bloomsbury Football’s Refugee & Asylum Seeker Programme last year.
Following a year of training, he progressed through to the LALIGA x Bloomsbury Football League. His parent said of the sessions, they are
“an incredible opportunity for Yehor to do what he is so passionate about. Every week, he counts down the days to the Friday Ukrainian session, where he plays with his friends”. Yehor says his favourite thing about playing football is
“trying to play at [his] best level”.

George (aged 13), Mark (aged 11) and Nikita (aged 12) – grew up in Kharkiv and Kyiv, and moved to London
last year:

The boys progressed from the Refugee & Asylum Seeker Programme through to the LALIGA x Bloomsbury Football
League, after arriving in London from Kharkiv (George) and Kyiv (Mark and Nikita).

Their families had learned from others in the community that Bloomsbury were inviting Ukrainian refugee’s children
to join in sessions and now all play in the LALIGA League. Nikita thinks that the Bloomsbury coaches are
“always kind and helpful”, and Mark agreed, stating that they “can understand and say what you can improve on and what you’re good at”. When asked whether he liked living in London, George commented that he does but hopes to return to Kharkiv
one day.