Terry Butcher and Titus Bramble joined Simon Milton at the Fourth Annual Futurestars Festival of Sport at the Tema Sports Stadium in Ghana at the weekend.

Milton left the Blues after 30 years in the summer to become the director of Futurestars, an education through sport joint initiative between OMA Ghana, Town’s academy and Yinson Production WA working with five primary schools in Tema, Ghana.

The festival saw the five schools - Baatsona, Community 7/1, Community 8/1, Rupublic Road and Twedaase school - compete in football and netball tournaments as well as sprint races.

The academy teams — Futurestars Agoe from Togo and Futurestars Ghana - also played a close and exciting game that ended dramatically with penalties, the Ghana home team taking the trophy from last year's winners Togo.

Milton said: “I was absolutely delighted to have former England captain Terry Butcher and ex-Newcastle and Ipswich defender Titus Bramble join us for the Festival of Sport in Tema this year.

“For Titus, it was a second visit and the chance to once again work with the coaches and players at the schools and development centres in Tema and Togo.

“For Terry, it was his first visit to Ghana and his enthusiasm for the project and children within it was a joy to see.

“The former Ipswich Town player and England captain is an ambassador for Futurestars and his presence was enjoyed by everyone he was introduced to.

“The project goes from strength to strength and the progress being made in the schools and development centres is there for all to see.

“Sport has a wonderful way of bringing people together and this event is thoroughly enjoyed by the teachers, management and staff as much as all the schoolchildren who take part on the day.”

The Futurestars project delivers daily and weekly sports programmes for boys and girls, and builds and runs small development academies, as well as assisting with the refurbishment of the participating schools.

OMA have employed two full-time coaches to work at the schools and Ipswich Town are closely involved in the training programmes and supply of kit.

Yinson Production WA have spearheaded a refurbishment programme at the partner schools which staff from all the founding companies have been involved with.

Headteachers in all the schools report that attendance is up and truancy is down since the programme started.

Bramble is still in Ghana but Milton and Butcher have returned to the UK and will be appearing on Saturday’s Life’s a Pitch (BBC Radio Suffolk, 12-2pm) to talk about the trip, tournament and project.
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Photos: Contributed

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