- Three UK, Chelsea F.C. and Samaritans want football fans to #TalkMoreThanFootball in emotive campaign to tackle mental health
- Two-thirds of football fans admit to struggling with mental health and 1-in-3 have never spoken about it
- Vinnie’s latest starring role sees him open up to Cole Palmer, Nicolas Jackson, Robert Sanchez & Alfie Gilchrist in team talk
To encourage football fans to ‘talk more’ with one another, Three UK has enlisted former footballer turned Hollywood hardman, Vinnie Jones to deliver a rousing speech to fans up and down the country.
The #TalkMoreThanFootball campaign which launches today in collaboration with Chelsea F.C. and Samaritans, sees Vinnie take over the team talk to deliver a poignant message on mental health. The campaign video premieres at Stamford Bridge Stadium during tonight’s game against Manchester United, to over 40,000 fans.
In the video, current Chelsea players Cole Palmer, Nicolas Jackson, Robert Sanchez and Alfie Gilchrist look set to receive the ‘hair dryer treatment’ from the football legend. Instead, Vinnie candidly uses his own struggles to encourage them to reach out to others and ‘talk more’.
The content draws inspiration from a motivational team talk and urges football fans of all ages to prioritise conversations around well-being within their social and support networks.
Vinnie Jones said: “I grew up in an era when mental health wasn’t even a thing, yet it’s something I struggled with without realising. Now I want to empower men and women to talk about it. To those of us that love football; we need to use those connections we have made to talk about more than just football. If I can do it, then you can too.”
The campaign follows new research of 2,000 UK football fans commissioned by Three UK which found that over two-thirds (67%) of football fans have struggled with their mental health, whilst one-in-three have never spoken to anyone about it. What’s more, only a tiny fraction (6%) of football fans admit to talking about their mental wellbeing with people they watch or play sport with.
But the issue runs deeper than simply spotting when someone is struggling, it also stretches to taking the first steps or finding reasons to reach out. The research found that one in four (27%) fans said that seeing well-known people talk more regularly about mental health would help them do it too. A further two-thirds (65%) would like to know how to broach the subject and 62% would like a prompt to talk about it more regularly. Today’s #TalkMoreThanFootball ‘team talk’ serves as a poignant reminder to reach out to friends and loved ones and start that conversation.
