Former professionals create history by playing first-ever football match inside a cathedral

Customary professional footballers have created history by playing the first-ever football match inside a cathedral.

As part of The Pools’ 100-year anniversary celebrations – a betting company that originated in Liverpool – legends such as John Barnes, Steve McMahon and Peter Reid took part in a 20-minute, six-a-facet match inside Liverpool Cathedral. The Pools created a temporary pitch in The Neatly of the Cathedral, with the compile ending 1-1 after plump-time. 

Barnes, McMahon, Sammy Lee, Mark Wright, Neil Mellor and Emmerdale actor Kurtis Stacey fashioned one team, with Rachel Brown-Finnis, Peter Reid, Neil Ruddock, Colin Hendry, Michael Ball and X-Factor’s Scott Wilkes their opponents.

Mellor and Reid each scored for their respective aspects in the file-breaking match, with Sammy Lee tucking away the profitable penalty to hand his facet the trophy, lifted by John Barnes.

James Arnold, CEO of The Pools, said: “We wanted to create a memorable wearing spectacle in the city the place The Football Pools’ implausible memoir began and this was absolutely it.

“As a proudly Liverpool-born business, The Pools already has shut connections with the Cathedral so we had been elated to have it as the venue for our file attempt, especially when the Dean kindly offered to take on the task of refereeing. She no doubt saved a cool head and made definite it was a fantastic fair game.”

The Very Rev. Dr Sue Jones even refereed the match, and highlighted how the ancient match was the latest event designed to encourage company to engage with the cathedral in totally different ways.

“The Pools is an establishment, no longer legal in Liverpool but across the nation, so we had been overjoyed to be a unfamiliar part of its centenary celebrations,” she said. “Jesus was always eager to reach out to as many folks as that you can bid and in Liverpool there’s no higher way to complete that than with football.”

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Ryan is a staff author for FourFourTwo, joining the team plump-time in October 2022. He first joined Future in December 2020, working across FourFourTwo, Golf Monthly, Rugby World and Advnture’s web sites, ahead of eventually earning himself a station with FourFourTwo permanently. After graduating from Cardiff College with a stage in Journalism and Communications, Ryan earned a NCTJ qualification to additional originate as a author while a Trainee Information Author at Future.