Creator of Balls to Poverty charity leaves for new role at the FA

A sports coach from Nottingham who set up an award-winning charity to help youngsters at home and abroad is leaving to take up a key role at the Football Association.

Joe Sargison created Balls to Poverty (B2P) in 2004 after giving a football to children in South Africa and seeing how much pleasure it gave them.

Over the next 10 years, he took parties of teenagers from Central College in Nottingham to coach youngsters in the townships of Cape Town and hand out footballs.

The trips have proved life-changing for many of the British students who have inspired young children in Nottingham inner-city schools with their experiences and gone on to university.

Joe, who won ITV News Central's Pride of Britain Award for the East Midlands in 2009, says it was a "wrench" to leave the charity which has won acclaim around the world, but the FA job offer was just too good to refuse.

His new role will see him coaching and educating academy coaches at a number of professional football clubs.

However, Joe says there was never any question of Balls to Poverty coming to an end. He passes the reins onto his deputy, Julie Huby, who will now run the programme assisted by Ady Osborne and James Murray who are both B2P graduates.

Joe will also retain an advisory role with the charity and will still join them on their annual trips to South Africa and Uganda.