Sports Interactive partners with Stormzy and Adidas initiative #Merky FC

Sports Interactive are deeply proud to be one of the partner brands for season two of #Merky Football Careers, a joint venture between Stormzy and adidas. 

#Merky FC was created to foster allyship and promote new opportunities for young black and mixed-black heritage people aspiring to work in football, with data demonstrating that 56% aspire to work in the industry yet only 6.7% of senior roles are held by people from these communities.

Fifteen roles were created in the first year of #Merky FC, covering everything from content creation to sales and marketing. Now, Sports Interactive are joining the likes of Sky Sports, ITV and TransferRoom to provide a total of 50 opportunities across different organisations for young people in the Black community aged 18-24 in the programme’s second year.

Miles Jacobson, Studio Director at Sports Interactive, said: “One of our Sports Interactive values is to ‘Consider the Bigger Picture’, which is all about making a positive impact and paying it forward. 

“That’s exactly what #Merky FC is all about and that’s why we’re delighted to be involved in the scheme’s second year. Initiatives like this are game changers for greater inclusion and diversity and help unlock more opportunities for young people from marginalised communities. We're passionate about doing what we can to help create more representative industries in the future.”

Stormzy said: “We launched #Merky FC last year to help level the playing field off the pitch by providing career opportunities for young black people. I am so pleased that we’re back this year with the same focus but with an increased recognition that there is still a lot of work to be done.”

Steve Marks, senior director of brand communications at Adidas, added: “We’re extremely proud to launch the next iteration of #Merky FC with Stormzy. We commissioned this report to demonstrate the tangible power of allyship – in a model projecting how we together can boost representation by 40% over five years through a simple act of allyship. Since its inception our goal for #Merky FC has been to not only cultivate new opportunities for young Black people, but to inspire an industrywide movement to create a more diverse and representative world of football.”

SI are currently working with Merky’s recruitment agency DIVERSE to finalise the details of the role ahead of the placement beginning in January 2024.