Inaugural UKFA Gary Speed symposium called off to raise funds

By Andrew Warshaw

February 7 – A football symposium renamed in honour of former Welsh manager Gary Speed has been postponed in order to buy more time for fundraising.

The inaugural UK Football Academy (UKFA) symposium, due to have taken place at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium tomorrow, was renamed the Gary Speed Football Congress after the death of the former Welsh manager.

Former Welsh head of performance Damian Roden was to have given a special presentation celebrating the achievements of 42-year-old Speed – due to have been one of the speakers at the original event – entitled “Building a successful team”.

But the event, open to managers, coaches and practitioners at every level of the game, has now been called off and no date rescheduled.

A UKFA statement said the decision to postpone was “to allow us more time to harness fully the fundraising potential for a worthy cause” and to give the event, which is set to become annual, “a more robust footing within the football calendar for future years”.

A spokesman for UKFA declined to go into further detail, telling insideworldfootball: “It was thought that postponing would enable organisers to achieve their goals better, in other words a fundraising event as well as a gathering of the football world.”

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