TWTD and Ipswich Town Ist will once again be collecting old football kit to send to Iraq ahead of Saturday's home game with QPR. Last weekend's collection brought in 220 shirts plus shorts, boots, trainers, caps, scarves, goalkeeper's gloves, balls and other equipment.

The kit collection started after TWTD received an email from Town fan Mark Stoneman who is in the US Army in Hamrin, Iraq.

Mark, who moved to the States in the late eighties, has been a supporter since he was 12 and still gets to a few games each season. He says that football is a major part of life in Hamrin: "We get along well with the people and try to help them out as much as we can. We've fixed schools and are running clean drinking water to every house, something they've never had before.

"One of the common bonds I have with the people here is a love of football. Poverty and unemployment are overwhelming and the only recreation most kids and young men have is the local football league, but they have little or no equipment.

"We have bought them footballs and built them another pitch in addition to the one they had, which is under water half the year (it was conveniently built on the shore of a lake), but they lack boots and strips.

"The shirts they do have are very old and imprinted with "A Gift from Saddam Hussein" on the front, as a sort of sponsor. Seeing as these are the only shirts they have they wear them, but only inside-out so as not to display Saddam's name."

Town have agreed to send out 30 old home shirts, 50 away kits, out of date benchwear and other discontinued clothing, while Simon Milton will be adding any unwanted Academy kit.

The collection will be at the usual TWTD stall next to the statue of Sir Alf Ramsey prior to Saturday's game (from around 1.30pm). Alternatively, post to TWTD at PO Box 87, Ipswich, IP4 2QE. The cost of transporting the kit to Iraq has been met by Trust chairman Carl Day's company, Seawing Landguard.

Mark says all kit is usable, no matter what state it is in: "If anybody has an old Ipswich replica jersey or strip (or any training gear for that matter), old boots or trainers, anything football-related, I'd like to ask them to send it to me here in Iraq and I'll give it to my friends in Hamrin. It really doesn't matter what condition it's in, it'll be better than what they have, trust me."

Photo: Action Images

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