I mentioned in my blog ‘Africans at the Palace’ a few weeks ago that Palace striker Kwesi Appiah had signed up to play in the inaugural iPAY2PLAY charity football tournament. The brainchild of former Ghana U21 International Papa Agyemang and Peterborough United's Gabriel Zakuani, iPAY2PLAY aims to raise money for HIV awareness projects in developing areas of Africa through sponsorship, particularly by means of professional footballer and celebrity endorsement. The first ever tournament is scheduled to kick off Monday 21^st May at 1pm at Lucozade Powerleague, Wembley Stadium. Each participant will pay towards their place and also raise money. TeamIMANI alongside Tackle Africa (www.tackleafrica.org )will provide a platform for participants to raise funds to help bring change to the lives that really need it. TackleAfrica deliver HIV education through football coaching in six African countries, helping save lives through the beautiful game. Peterborough and Congo player Gabi Zakuani and TeamIMANI will be visiting Ghana with TackleAfrica in June. I’ve actually had the huge privilege to visit Uganda, Zambia and Kenya to help deliver TackleAfrica projects in those countries, alongside a team of other UK-based, TackleAfrica trained volunteers.  TA have developed an amazingly innovative training mannual which combines basic football drills such as passing or shooting, with HIV education messages, and I’ve seen first hand how well this works. It provides behaviour changing education in some of the communities in sub-Saharan Africa worse hit by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.  The overwhelming love for football, and the English game in particular means that TackleAfrica have a fantastic platform for delivering these projects to an audience that laps it up. The iPAY2PLAY tournament has managed to land some major players from the Premier League and international areas, and in addition to our Kwesi, the long list of players and celebrities is below. Click on their names to donate to their fundraising pages.

Gabriel Zakuani - Peterborough and DR Congo Kwesi Appiah – Crystal Palace Leon Legge – Brentford Emmanuel Frimpong – Arsenal Yannick Bolasie – Bristol City Eddie Kadi – Comedian and DJ Kazenga LuaLua – Brighton and Hove Albion Lomana Tresor LuaLua – Blackpool and DR Congo Craig Mackail-Smith – Brighton and Hove Albion Albert Adomah – Bristol City and Ghana Matthew Briggs – Fulham Kevin J – Comedian Kwadwo Asamoah – Udinese and Ghana Justin Hoyte – Middlesborough Lethal Bizzle - Rap star Kojo - Comedian and DJ Carlton Cole – West Ham and England Nile Ranger – Newcastle and England U21