LDN UTD AGAINST RACISM

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE RIO FERDINAND FOUNDATION

LDN UTD and Rio Ferdinand Foundation announce esports event to empower young people in the UK, in tandem with a celebrity FIFA 21 “Pro-Am”.

The Foundation, a youth and community development charity, is celebrating 10 years of creating strong, safe and inclusive communities.

LDN UTD is the esports org that unites professional esports and grassroots gaming with healthy lifestyle and social issues.

Fans will have the opportunity to compete in open qualifiers to play alongside elite sports athletes and influencers in a live stream on 30th May.

All profits from the event will be donated, along with funds raised through the stream, to deliver empowerment and skills workshops to enable young people to tackle racism and inequality in their own communities.

LONDON, 28th April 2021

LDN UTD and the Rio Ferdinand Foundation today announce UTD AGAINST RACISM, an online event empowering the young community through the medium of esports, to take place on 30th May2021.

LDN UTD is the esports org that promotes healthy lifestyle and addresses social issues, using the platform of gaming and esports. LDN UTD has previously held events to address special issues including knife crime, and in October last year, held UTD Against Racism with Leyton Orient FC and Kingston Race and Equalities Council.

The Rio Ferdinand Foundation works to strengthen the UK’s most deprived communities to tackle inequality, and recently announced a programme of activities to celebrate its ten year anniversary. The forthcoming UTD Against Racism stream draws on the support of like-minded organisations, to stand together, to inspire opportunity, and to celebrate youth-led social action.

Fans will be offered the opportunity to compete in open qualifiers for FIFA 21 with a chance to play alongside celebrities in the finals brackets on Sunday 30th May, which will be broadcast live on LDNUTD’s Twitch channel and produced by 1080 Media. In tandem with the theme of empowering young people, the stream will include a short film shown in segments on how young people see solutions to racism one year on from the death of George Floyd, as well as other content from celebrity participants, and Rio Ferdinand Foundation Youth Ambassador Leo Brown from Belfast, an ex Birmingham City footballer who broke into esports when recovering from injury.

The talent line-up will include Rak-Su singer and TV personality, Myles Stephenson, LDN UTD Ambassador ShaunaGames, LDN UTD FIFA Pro Adam Ryan, and professional darts player and Sky Sports pundit Devon Petersen, with many more to be announced in the coming weeks.

Rio Ferdinand said, “My hopes for the event is to get loads of young people involved, not because they have to get involved, because they want to. Obviously, Rio Ferdinand Foundation being very youth orientated, it will be amazing to see a lot of interaction with young people. I will do everything I can to support this. It hits home, it means a lot to me in my own personal life and I don’t want my kids to experience what I’ve experienced or experience things that other people have experienced. Now is the time to change”.

Leo Brown said,“UTD Against Racism is something we should all get behind as it doesn’t just affect people of colour or people from certain ethnic minorities, it affects us all. We are all entwined in some way or another and I feel like creating that safe space for equality can benefit everyone.

ShaunaGames, Ambassador for LDN UTD, and renowned FIFA content creator said, “Youth-led programmes being provided by the Rio Ferdinand Foundation play a pivotal role in connecting our communities and empowering change. At LDN UTD we want to play our part in addressing social change, raise awareness through the medium of esports, and support equality.”

Myles Stephenson – Rak-Su singer and TV personality – said, “As a mixed raced man raised in the U.K I am proud of both my British & Caribbean heritage. Unfortunately, not everyone celebrates cultural differences and I’ve experienced racism myself. As a result, any opportunity I get to support the fight against racism and where we can bring people together, I want to be involved. #UTDAgainstRacism”

Registration for the qualifiers which will take place in partnership with the Challengermode platform will be via the LDN UTD website. Full details of qualifier formats and talent will be released in the coming weeks via @ldnutd and @riofoundation on Twitter.

Note to editors:

Enquiries can be directed to press@ldnutd.gg or rhiannon@rioferdinandfoundation.com

About LDN UTD

LDN UTD is an innovative esports org. We use esports to serve society and promote a healthy lifestyle. We have premium rosters in Valorant, FIFA, Fortnite and League of Legends. Since inception, we have worked with Chipotle, DLA Piper, HyperX, Razer, Landsec, Logitech, Bio-Synergy, Yop and many more – always foregrounding social issues. We partnered with grime artist P Money to address the issue of knife crime in Lewisham, hosted the ROAD TO YANA FIFA tournament to address loneliness resulting from the COVID-19 lockdown, partnered with Leyton Orient FC and Kingston Race And Equalities Council on UTD Against Racism to celebrate diversity in gaming, and most recently with the Yop Esports Champs fused education and esports in partnership with the Mayor of London.

For more info, visit www.ldnutd.gg

About Rio Ferdinand Foundation

Rio Ferdinand Foundation is a youth and community development charity. The Foundation works in the heart of the UKs most disadvantaged communities, supporting young people (aged 10-25), to tackle inequality and reach their personal potential. Set up by Rio Ferdinand in 2012, the Foundation aims to address issues of inequality that Rio had experienced in his own life growing up in Peckham, South London. The Foundation creates opportunities and pathways for young people to achieve their potential through sports, media, arts, and education. Through their work, they empower young people to take control of their lives, become socially mobile and drive social change. Their work delivers support under four strategic themes; safe spaces; health and wellbeing; strong, safe and inclusive communities; and progression, skills and training. Alongside Rio, 70% of the Foundation’s leadership board are from Caribbean and African communities and all of their trustees and staff have lived experience of at least some of the issues their work is tackling. Since 2012, the Rio Ferdinand Foundation has worked hard to dispel limiting beliefs in society. Now working across the UK and Ireland, with regional hubs in London, Manchester and Belfast, the Foundation has supported over 10,000 young people to tackle the inequality they face in their lives and realise their own potential.

Contact.