Arsenal have just been crowned Premier League champions – for the first time in 22 years. Across north London and around the world, fans are celebrating a season that will be remembered forever.
But for Save the Children, Arsenal's success means something more. For 14 years, the two organisations have been working side by side, using football to change the lives of some of the world's most vulnerable children.
Football as a lifeline
The Arsenal Foundation became Save the Children's first ever global charity partner in 2011. Since then, the partnership has raised over £5 million, built football pitches in Iraq, Somalia, Indonesia and Jordan, and created one of the most innovative programmes in international development.
Coaching for Life - launched in 2018 at Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan - combines over 100 years of Save the Children's child protection expertise with Arsenal in the Community's 40 years of sports development experience. The programme works with displaced Syrian children aged 12-18, using football to build mental, emotional and physical resilience.
More than 6,800 children have now graduated from Coaching for Life, including a growing number of girls. When the programme launched, only a handful of girls took part. Today, an equal number of girls and boys graduate, and the programme continues to move towards a gender-transformative approach - where girls and boys work together to address deep-rooted stereotypes.
More than football
The impact goes well beyond the pitch. Coaches trained in Jordan - many of them former participants - are now teaching the next generation. 48 Syrian coaches have been trained, including 36 former participants, creating a legacy that outlasts any single visit from an Arsenal coach.
As Per Mertesacker, Arsenal’s Academy Manager, said after visiting the camp:
When children suffer, we all lose. This project will give them courage to cope with the struggles they face day to day, as well as providing them with the skills to have a better future.
Young voices, big impact
The partnership doesn't stop in Jordan. In 2025, Save the Children's Young Peacemakers Assembly - 15 young people who have experienced conflict first-hand - gathered at the Arsenal Community Hub in north London. Together with Yemeni-British poet Amina Atiq, they created a poem-turned-film offering their vision of a fairer, more compassionate world.
The event brought together child refugees and young Londoners to share experiences of displacement, belonging and hope. You can watch the film below.
These same young people have been lobbying the UK government on overseas aid cuts, raising the alarm on the crisis in Sudan, and calling for better support for Ukrainian children. Football opened the door. What they're doing with it goes far further.
A partnership built on shared values
The Arsenal Vision podcast alone has raised more than £1 million for Coaching for Life since 2023 - testament to how much Arsenal fans have embraced what this partnership represents.
As Arsenal lift the trophy this week, it's a reminder that the club's greatest season is also being felt in a refugee camp in Jordan, in a community hub in north London, and in the lives of thousands of children who now have a little more courage to face what comes next.
If you're inspired by this work, you can find out more about our partnership with the Arsenal Foundation - or support our work for children affected by conflict today.
