Overview

AFDP Global Foundation is a grant-making charity with the following charitable objects:

  • to advance, for the public benefit, the amateur sport of football and such other sports which promote health by involving physical or mental skill or exertion through the grant funding of sports programmes to engage children and young people; and
  • to advance in life and relieve the needs of children and young people through:

– the provision of recreational and leisure time activities provided in the interest of social welfare, designed to improve their conditions of life; and

– providing support and activities which develop their skills, capacities and capabilities to enable them to participate in society as mature and responsible individuals.

Structure

AFDP Global Foundation is a UK charitable company limited by guarantee (company number 11579485) and a UK registered Charity (charity number 1185271)

Our Work

The Foundation currently operates by making grants to projects falling within its charitable objects.

Trustees

The AFDP Global Foundation is run by its trustees who are responsible for the operation of the charity and its charitable work, including the selection of projects for grant-funding.

The Foundation has three trustees, who you can read more about below, Paul Hijazin, Rick Parry and Marion Vayson de Pradenne.

    • Shimon Cohen

      Shimon Cohen

      Shimon is the founder and chair of The PR Office, a London-based public relations consultancy. He is a media relations and reputation management specialist who has advised a wide range of clients, including, governments, multinationals, public and voluntary sector organisations, and political, religious and business leaders.

      At The PR Office, Shimon works with clients in professional services, business, entertainment, sport, technology and the voluntary sector. He advises chair people, chief executive officers and high profile sports and media personalities.

      Shimon led the international communications and PR team for HRH Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein’s International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) presidential bid.

      He also led on communications for former South African president Nelson Mandela’s 46664 campaign, which raises awareness of HIV/AIDS and social injustice. He wrote speeches for Mandela and was head of the communications team that saw the United Nations establish Nelson Mandela Day.

      Shimon carries out a range of voluntary work, especially connected to special educational needs. He is a loyal Cardiff City supporter and is married with three daughters.

    • Paul
      Hijazin

      Paul
      Hijazin

      Paul has had a varied career in journalism and is now an adviser to HRH Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein. He has interviewed many world leaders, prime ministers and senior officials, and covered war zones, as well as natural disasters, in the Middle East and internationally.

      Paul arrived to his current role from Sky News Arabia, where he headed up the network’s Washington DC-based team.

      He started his television career with CBS news in Amman, Jordan, during the first Gulf War. After finishing his degree in broadcasting in the US, Paul returned to Jordan to work as a reporter and anchor of the English news on Jordan Television Corporation (JTV). He later became a programming manager for ATV, the first private TV station in Jordan.

      In the US, Paul worked at Al Jazeera as a correspondent in Washington DC and then at the press office at the city’s Jordanian Embassy.

      In Dubai, Paul was a reporter and presenter at MBC News, an evening news anchor on Dubai TV and executive producer for current affairs shows on English language entertainment television channel Dubai One.

      Paul also reported for CNBC Europe and CNN and was one of the first Jordanian reporters to cover the second uprising in Palestine in 2000.

    • Rick Parry

      Rick Parry

      Rick has held numerous top-level positions in football governance.

      He has sat on the Union of European Football Associations’ (UEFA) club licensing and financial fair play control board since 2016 and advised Prince Ali on the football governance aspects of his bid for the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) presidency. In 2016, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan asked Rick to join a team that would have assisted Prince Ali to reform FIFA had he been successful in a bid to do so.

      As a management consultant at accounting company Ernst & Young, he worked on Manchester’s bid for the 1996 Olympic Games. The bidding process led to the creation of world-class facilities, including the Etihad Stadium.

      In late 1990, he helped establish the Football Association Premier League. As its first chief executive officer, he contributed to the development of young players. Professional clubs were only allowed to coach young players for an hour each week in 1992. By the time Rick left the Premier League in 1997, every club was investing in new academies.

      In the nine years Rick was chief executive at the club he has supported all his life – Liverpool FC – they won 10 trophies, including the UEFA Champions League.

      Since leaving Liverpool FC in 2009, Rick has carried out a variety of football-related consultancy projects for UEFA, and himself, in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, the USA and Mexico. He has also worked on two major sport-related assignments for the UK government, including an inquiry into football governance.

      Rick serves on the global philanthropy board and contributes regularly to the football industries MBA course at the University of Liverpool. In 2008, the university awarded him an honorary doctorate for his services to the city

Relations with AFDP Global CIC

AFDP Global CIC and AFDP Global Foundation operate independently of each other.  Although the two organisations share the same headquarters, there are arms’ length contractual arrangements in place to ensure that the independence of each organisation is safeguarded appropriately.

The objects of the Foundation are such that it is able to make grants to AFPD Global CIC for such of its projects as are charitable under English law.