Manchester FA has teamed up with British Heart Foundation (BHF) to create a Heart Safe Charter to help look after the health and wellbeing of local Manchester football communities. 

This collaboration forms part of Manchester FA’s wider ‘Heart Safe’ plan which highlights the need for football clubs in the area to work together to ensure that defibrillators are available to everyone involved in the game.

The initiative will raise awareness of the importance of maintaining a defibrillator and public access to it as well as ensuring staff within local football clubs are trained in basic CPR and first aid in the event an emergency, such as a cardiac arrest, should happen.

Stretford Victoria Chairman Gareth Dickman:

“We are delighted to commit the Manchester FA’s newly launched Heart Safe Charter. Unfortunately, our club recently had our defibrillator that we had on site for training and match days vandalised so that it was unusable. Manchester FA have been instrumental in supporting us to get a replacement and without their help we would be left without a vital piece of lifesaving equipment.

We fully embrace the Charter and feel that it highlights a lot of simple steps that clubs can take to make sure we are in the best possible position should an emergency occur. A lot of people don’t know  that once you have a defibrillator, that you need to register it to The Circuit so that the emergency services know it is available and can locate the nearest one to the accident. It is key information like this that the Heart Safe Charter will help to make known and hopefully help to save more lives.

We would like to personally thank Manchester FA for all their help and support given to our club and look forward to working through the charter together. We are proud to be a Manchester FA accredited club.”