boxer Frank Bruno supports scheme to deliver free footballs

Ritchie Beckett, the director of non-profit initiative Found Football, is pledging to drop more of them in the county's parks before the end of the year.

The 44-year-old dad from Stockport said Bruno's support took the movement "to another level" and he wanted it to go "nationwide" in the future.

On social media, Bruno said he hoped it would prevent children from getting involved with "other activities".

"If a small game of football between a few people means they won't be up to other things in the park it gets my thumbs up," said the former WBC heavyweight champion.

Beckett said: "The idea came years and years ago, where I had this idea in my head to fill a football pitch somewhere... and local communities would wake up to just this sight of thousands and thousands of footballs on their local pitch."

The footballs are provided at "near enough" cost price by a company, and funded by a mix of advertisements and donations.

Technology has made encouraging his children to exercise "more challenging", Beckett said, but he hopes his initiative could make a difference to young people.

"Everyone talks about the scientist who gets his first telescope at Christmas... and that's the journey," he said.

"Sometimes with a football, that's all it takes. Somebody picks up a ball, in 20 years, they could be representing their country. You just never know.

"There's no QR code, there [isn't] anything to do, it's just a ball left on a pitch, people can take it and play."

Found Football's biggest drop so far was 100 footballs on a pitch in Stockport last week, but Beckett told BBC Essex presenter Sonia Watson that he was pledging another 100 to Essex by the end of September.

Beckett said: "It just shows why he's a national treasure because he could have ignored the messages. I'm sure he gets lots of weird and wonderful requests."

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