A BRADFORD-based charity is appealing for donations of sports shoes, boots and trainers to pass on to disadvantaged children in the district.

Action for Sport, which is based at Bradford City’s Valley Parade, has targeted 5,000 donations of football boots or trainers that children can use for their own sporting activity.

The charity has been co-founded by Clive Michallat, who has been a scout with the Bantams for more than 15 years, and Andrew Kenure and started up in March last year.

However, the pandemic has meant the charity’s representatives have been unable to deliver the donated items to district schools. But they hope to start to distribute them when restrictions allow.

It aims to ‘right the wrongs’ of inequality by collecting second-hand sportswear that can be used by those less fortunate. The charity also wants to prevent poverty from stopping children and young people playing sport.

Mr Michallat’s charity has even had support from now Manchester United and England star Mason Greenwood, who he discovered.

He had first spotted Greenwood playing in a tournament for Idle Juniors, when he was just five.

Greenwood has now donated three signed shirts and a pair of boots to raise funds for the charity.

Mr Michallat said: “We are collecting children’s outgrown sports boots that are donated, we re-sanitise them and then distribute them to disadvantaged kids in Bradford.

“It’s sporting shoes and trainers that we’re really desperate for. We have 1,000 donated items that we’ve stored. Bradford City have been brilliant with us. I think they're the first club to support this type of concept.

We need that supply line for boots. They could be football boots, trainers, cricket or hockey shoes

“The poverty in Bradford is awful, it’s heartbreaking.

“We became a registered charity in March last year. Covid has held us up a bit.

“We’re ready to go into schools when the restrictions allow. We’re already in talks with schools in Bradford.

“When we look at the poverty in some areas of Bradford, we know this is the right thing to do.

“Some of the heartbreaking stories we hear. It’s humbling and to help them is priceless.

“There’s a community togetherness in Bradford. We have had a good response to what we’re doing.

“We’re more than happy to collect shoes from people’s homes in Bradford too.

“We’re also asking people to donate £1 per month Direct Debit to help fund what we’re doing. It’s called a Pound for Poverty and we pass it on to help disadvantaged children.”

Action for Sport has strong roots with the district’s football clubs and boosted its total by collecting 50 pairs of boots from players from Salts Juniors Football Club.

The charity’s ambassadors include Team GB athlete Alexandra Bell and former Bantams chief executive, James Mason, who now works for Welcome to Yorkshire and Andrew Kendall-Jones, founder of Southern Broadstock.

Mr Michallat has had a string of football scouting success including with Andre Wisdom, the defender he first scouted as a 13-year-old for Yorkshire Amateurs. Wisdom was sold by City to Liverpool a year later in a deal that has generated close to £1 million over time.

To donate any old children’s-sized sports shoes, call Mr Michallet on 07900 223829 or email info@actionforsport.com, or to donate go to peoplesfundraising.com/donation/action-for-sport