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Lay’s Replay, with support from the UEFA Foundation for Children, inaugurated a brand new football pitch Thursday morning at the Errekalde Sports Centre in Bilbao with Manchester City defender Laia Aleixandri and former Spain international Fernando Llorente both in attendance.
The inauguration included a ribbon-cutting ceremony, a meet and greet with the ambassadors, photo opportunities with the UEFA Women’s Champions League trophy, raffles to be a Centre Circle Carrier during the opening ceremony of the final and tickets to the final, as well as a freestyle football show and community football tournament.
With the new pitch, Lay’s RePlay and its partners will promote an inclusive sports programme that will foster the social development of young migrant women between the ages of 12 to 18 to strengthen not only their socioemotional skills, but also their sense of belonging, tolerance, respect, commitment, teamwork and collaboration in the community through the new pitch. Lay’s RePlay will run a full ongoing programme that will include different activities to improve football skills, as well as communication and teamwork, which are key social skills for the development and growth of the players.
Urs Kluser, general secretary of the UEFA Foundation, said, “Few things are as rewarding as putting sport at the service of communities. At the UEFA Foundation for Children, we believe this is fundamental to providing holistic development for young girls growing up in vulnerable communities. Lay’s RePlay has become one of our reference programmes and bringing it to Bilbao allows us to continue spreading our work for the first time here.”
Iker Ganuza, general manager of PepsiCo Spain, said, “At PepsiCo we are very proud to carry out initiatives such as Lay’s RePlay which, in addition to promoting inclusive sports, have a positive impact on our local communities. We believe in the power of soccer to transform lives and we are committed to continue working on projects that promote gender equality and social development.”
The launch of the initiative was also supported by Common Goal, Bilbao city council and the Athletic Club Foundation, which will see players from Athletic Club’s men’s and women’s teams be involved. The participation of female athletes in particular will allow them to serve as role models for the young girls to look up to and be inspired by.
About Lay’s Replay
Since the project launched in 2021, Lay’s RePlay with the support of the UEFA Foundation for Children has inaugurated 11 sustainable soccer fields around the world in South Africa, Brazil, the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy (Turin and Naples), Mexico, Egypt, Türkiye and Colombia, and now Spain. Since the launch of its first pitch, Lay’s RePlay has provided over 11,000 hours of programming and events for the respective communities across all of its pitches, benefitting more than 1,500 participants.
