A football fan from Wallington has been shortlisted for a national campaign to design a Coin of Respect for the Football Association.
Chloe, 12, is appealing to Your Local Guardian readers to help her win the competition.
In April, The FA and Nationwide Building Society launched a new initiative to promote mutual respect on and off the pitch, with a national competition to design the first ever Coin for Respect.
The coin toss is a symbol of fair chance at the start of every game, but before this competition, no official coin ever existed.
The competition, which gained the support of England’s football stars Jordan Nobbs, Nick Pope, Beth Mead and Tyrone Mings, plus legends David James and Karen Carney, received over 400 entries, with Chloe selected as part of the final eleven.
Speaking about the news, Chloe said: “Football is for everyone, and I wanted that message to inspire my design. In football you should always show respect for your opponent, the referees and other supporters no matter who they are.
"The hearts in my design represent that the world, including football, will always be better with more love in it!
“It’s great to be one of the 11 shortlisted designs and thank you to everybody who votes for me!”
James Kendall, Director of Football Development at The FA, said: “Respect can be such a complex issue to illustrate and demonstrate, so I was amazed at the variety of all of the entries that were submitted.
"I think we have a really strong shortlist that captures the power that football can have to change opinions and behaviours.
"I loved the thought that these kids put into their coins and the level of detail they went to when describing what respect meant to them as well.
"I think they will work brilliantly on the coin and as a symbol of mutual respect going forward.
"This will be a tough one to decide for sure.”
Paul Hibbs, Head of Community at Nationwide Building Society, commented: “I was overwhelmed with the variety of the entries with designs focusing on different elements of what respect means.
"From designs that captured the ‘mutual’ in mutual respect showing how two people can come together to show kindness, to designs showing how important respect is not just by players, but also by those on the side-lines and in stadiums.
"It was so hard to choose our shortlist and now I’m really excited to see what the public vote their winner and see it turned into a coin.”
Not only will the winning design be featured on the coin which will be used across the country, but they will also win two tickets to an England game at Wembley Stadium connected by EE.
Alongside this, all shortlisted entries will receive a tour of Wembley Stadium alongside other goodies.
Voting will close on August 1. To cast your vote for Chloe here.
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