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Stormzy has again teamed up with Adidas for the next phase of #Merky Football Careers partnership – this time launching a new online platform to help Black youth find careers in football.
First established in 2022, the project was built to address racial equity in the football industry and provide opportunities for UK Black Heritage Youth to access jobs in the sector. Since its launch, the movement has added 63 roles to the UK football industry for young people of UK Black Heritage, with 39 roles retained for extended periods.
Now, the initiative has shared a new development to take things a step further – unveiling an online platform dedicated to both offering support to the current cohort who are already in roles, and developing a wider community for those who have applied for roles.
The platform will run year-round and comes in in collaboration with #Merky FC’s recruitment partner DIVERSE. Throughout the year, young people will be able to find and apply for roles available in the football industry, receive advice and guidance on career development, and access exclusive access to networking opportunities and events hosted by DIVERSE.
“I’m proud that Adidas and Stormzy continue to give us a powerful platform to inspire and impact the lives of young people through career support, events, and work opportunities in football. It’s been incredible to see these talented individuals grow and finally get the chance to show what they can do,” said Tobi Ogundipe, Founder of DIVERSE.
“The brands involved have worked together to help us build, educate and hire from a new community of young people who previously had no connections in football. The best part is they’re now becoming the future faces of the industry and inspiring others from the black community to apply and join the mission as well.”
Steve Marks, Senior Director of Brand Communications at Adidas added: “The first two years have created a solid platform, and it is the right time to shift the programme to a year-round platform, creating more awareness and extended opportunities to continue to drive equity in the UK football business. The fact a high percentage of the recruits are being retained beyond their initial year placement is a testament to the concept and one that we are extremely proud of.”
Visit here to find out more about #Merky FC and the new platform.
As well as creating 63 roles in the UK football industry for young people of UK Black Heritage since its 2022 launch, this period has also seen a 273 per cent increase in applications – equating to one applicant for every four available football industry jobs.
This isn’t the first expansion of the #Merky FC initiative that has been implemented for 2024 either. Back in May, Stormzy and co. announced a new centre for music, football and gaming called #MerkyFC HQ.
The centre is in Croydon, London, which has been developed to help give the community access to new facilities including a brand-new hub, housing football pitches, a state-of-the-art recording studio, a sports gaming hub and multipurpose rooms.
A music studio was also added to the centre – serving as an accessible space for all other multimedia uses, such as Podcasts and gaming events – as was a sports gaming hub, which allows young people to test their skills on the latest EA Sports titles, including EA Sports FC 24 and EA Sports F1 23.
Before then, the rapper confirmed that the scheme would “broaden its scope and impact by tripling the number of roles available”, and expanded its award-winning publishing imprint #Merky Books by announcing a two-day literature festival.
In 2021, the London grime icon also announced plans to support 30 more students through studies at Cambridge University through his scholarship scheme.
It came as part of a partnership between Stormzy’s #Merky Foundation and the bank HSBC, and saw 10 students per year receive a £20,000 annual scholarship to cover tuition fees and maintenance costs.
He then brought the university initiative back last year too, pledging to fund 36 more black Cambridge students over the next three years.
In other Stormzy news, the artist was recently announced as the first headliner for Roskilde Festival 2025, with the Danish non-profit festival returning for its 53rd edition between June 28 and July 5 next year. Before then, the rapper told Vince Staples that he’s working on new music in a recent Q&A.