Football managers get the call up for Prostate Cancer UK

Former England stars Alan Shearer and Gary Neville, AFC Bournemouth supremo Eddie Howe, Republic of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy, the vastly-experienced Sam Allardyce and former Scotland manager Alex McLeish have joined our ambassador Les Ferdinand in our latest drive to save lives.

With prostate cancer killing one man every 45 minutes in the UK – two men every football match – we're delighted the football family are once again uniting to back the cause.

Through our partnership with the League Managers Association (LMA) – the collective, representative voice of all managers, past and present, from across The Premier League, the Sky Bet Championship and Sky Bet League One, SkyBet League Two, the Barclays Women’s Super League and the FA Women’s Championship – we worked with these household names from the beautiful game about why they wear their “Man of Men” badge.

“Prostate cancer is something that I’ve been aware about for a while now. My family are all ok, my dad’s recovered, my uncles have recovered. Unfortunately, my granddad didn’t recover, but that’s caused me to take more of an interest. I go and see my doctor every year now, whereas in the past, until I was made acutely aware of it, I probably didn’t... I was delighted to get the call to support this great initiative.” says the former England, Newcastle, QPR and Spurs striker Les Ferdinand.

Come and join the biggest team in football

We’ve become difficult to ignore in football, especially with the growing popularity of our Man of Men pin badge. It’s graced the lapel of almost every football manager and Sky Sports pundit in recent years, including Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola, England manager Gareth Southgate and Sky Sports presenter Jeff Stelling, as well as thousands of fans. We’ve grown an army of supporters in football, raising millions of pounds along the way and making more men, and their families, aware of their risk of prostate cancer.

With our six-year partnership with the English Football League coming to an end in 2017/18 – which raised £4 million with the support of the 72 EFL clubs, 3,500 match day volunteers, and over 1,500 football fans cycling Football to Amsterdam – we have investigated new opportunities to continue to build our presence in football.

Last season we partnered with SkyBet Championship clubs Millwall, Nottingham Forest, Derby County and Queens Park Rangers. We also teamed up with SkyBet League One’s Southend United to become their official shirt sponsor, which proved a life-saving success.

And following the end of our partnership with the EFL, joining forces with The Vanarama National League felt a natural step. And delivered a multi-award-winning partnership with league sponsor Vanarama, who officially changed their name to MANarama for a six-week period raising a whopping £150,000. Watch this space for this season's activities!

What’s next?

Jeff Stelling returns and he’s on a mission to raise £1 million. He’s already completed 25 marathons in previous years for us, and he’s returning in September to walk four marathons in four days across the four home nations. There’s still time to join Jeff, too.

Together with clubs and fans, players, managers and pundits are helping every week to bring awareness of prostate cancer to millions of football fans who might not have known anything about it if not for football. Our mission remains to show that no matter what team people support, we are united for one cause – to stop prostate cancer being a killer.