Charity to benefit from Spurs players' fines

Club fines handed out to Tottenham players are to be used to help fund a new long-term charity commitment.

The Premiership club have announced a new international charity partnership with SOS Children’s Villages and donate money received from players’ fines towards the cause.

Spurs first elected to ring-fence fines rather than absorb them directly into the their accounts five years ago.

Now the club will use the cash to support good works in the local community via the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation, and to fund a children’s home in Rustenburg, South Africa.

Club officials and former Spurs captain Gary Mabbutt visited the new home, to which the club has so far contributed £55,000 (€81,000) and met SOS workers and the first children to arrive in house number six.

Chairman Daniel Levy said: “We are delighted to be taking the first steps in what we know will be a hugely beneficial project for the local community. It represents a responsible use of players fines and will also be fully underwritten by the club.

“We have had a massive supporter base in South Africa ever since our success in the 1960s and still enjoy an affinity with the country where we were made to feel so welcome on our 2003 pre-season tour. We look forward to becoming an important part of life for hundreds of children and young people.”

Mabbutt, added: "I am impressed with the novel thinking behind using the players’ fines for this good cause and it is great to see the club fully-supporting this project. The players have greeted this news enthusiastically and are keen to give it their support."

SOS Children’s Villages International is the world’s largest orphan and abandoned children charity whose main role is helping children whose parents are not there for them.

Rustenburg represents a new approach in creating an ideal environment in which orphaned and abandoned children can be cared for.

The children are housed in a regular community, with an appointed mother, a home in a regular street and attend local schools.

The huge benefit of this approach is that the children are not separately identified as orphans and do not require re-integration when they are old enough to leave the care of SOS.

SOS Children’s Villages International already works in 124 countries in the world and runs 450 SOS Children’s Villages and 342 Youth Homes.

The charity cares for more than 60,000 children and provides 100,000 children with an education in its nurseries, primary and secondary schools.