The group of four year 10 pupils, who were tasked with presenting a business idea for increasing family attendance at Premier League matches, went head to head with schools representing Blackburn, Blackpool, Bolton, Burnley, Everton, Hull, Manchester City and Wigan football clubs.

The Irlam and Cadishead Fans4Life idea saw the concept of creating a special match day stadium suite with a focus on promoting healthy eating and physical activity before and after the match. Unfortunately the team narrowly missed a place in the national finals, but the experience and learning didn’t end there.

Manchester United Director and Foundation trustee Michael Edelson, who was part of the judging panel for the finals, took to mentoring the group and helping them refine their idea. The venture capitalist and angel investor spent one on one time critiquing the team on their presenting skills as well as giving valuable advice and insight from his experiences in business. 

Michael was keen to the praise the team and was impressed by the scope of the Premier League funded project. He said, “Young people have lots of access to business funding and support and it’s fantastic to see these pupils developing skills that will help them in their future careers. The effort has been impressive and it’s now about the next steps they take to pursue a career in business. They know how to properly construct and script a business presentation to the point where they could advertise and start a business doing just that.”

Foundation coach, Rob Martin, who leads the enterprise project was equally impressed with the ICC team. He said, “The passion and commitment the team have shown has been tremendous. They came in over half term to develop their ideas and carried out market research at the Trafford Centre off their own back. While they didn’t reach the final I still hope this positive attitude goes on to help them in their studies at school and in the future.”