David Beckham and Muhammad Ali took to the stage together at the Beyond Sport Summit in London on Tuesday 24th July to present the inaugural Generation Ali Beyond Sport Award. The boxing legend and the former England captain presented the award, which recognises Service, Leadership, and Action in the community, to Matiullah Haidar.

19-year-old Matiullah, who lost most of his family in the conflict in Afghanistan, came to the UK as a refugee. He now coaches sport and supports refugees as a skilled translator. As part of the programme of support that he and his fellow nominees will receive as the founding members of Beyond Sport’s Young Advisory Panel, they will be flown by British Airways to the Beyond Sport United conference, to be held at Yankee Stadium in New York on November 13th 2012.

Beyond Sport is a global initiative that seeks to celebrate and support any organisation or individual with the goal to drive positive social change through sport. Its global partners are Barclays Spaces for Sports, TIME and UNICEF.

For more information on Beyond Sport and the Beyond Sport Summit & Awards visit www.beyondsport.org

For images of this presentation visit www.actionimages.com with the following login:

Username: AliBeckham
Password: AliBeckham2012

Or contact Richard.Whiting@actionimages.com

Notes for Editors:

Winner Profile
Matiullah Haidar is a 19-year-old asylum seeker from Afghanistan. He fled to the UK 5 years ago after the Taliban killed many of his family members in front of his very eyes and he came to the UK with the clothes on his back.

Matiullah has gone from speaking no English and only thinking as far as his next meal to being a translator for the Refugee Cricket Project and training hard to one day work in the medical profession.

Matiullah is also the Cricket For Change project’s Manager and he helps select teams for fixtures, helps translate important refugee and asylum documents into a language the young people can understand and now, having passed his UKCC Level 1 in cricket coaching, he is beginning his coaching journey.

Beyond Sport
Beyond Sport is a global organisation that promotes, develops and funds the use of sport to create positive social change across the world.
We do this primarily in three ways…

Beyond Sport Awards
The Beyond Sport Awards programme provides support worth £2 million ($3 million) annually to projects across the world that use sport to address issues within their communities. The Beyond Sport Awards 2012 will be announced at the Beyond Sport Summit, which is being held in London from 23rd to 25th July.

Beyond Sport Summit
The Summit is an annual event that brings together the best sport-led social innovators with influential, global leaders to address sport’s role in driving positive social change. The Beyond Sport Summit 2011 was held in Cape Town, following in the footsteps of Chicago in 2010 and London in 2009. The Beyond Sport Summit 2012 is being held in London from 23rd to 25th July. Speakers include Rt Hon Tony Blair, Francois Pienaar, Jamie Oliver, Baroness Tanni Gray-Thompson, Lonnie Ali, Ian Thorpe, Michelle Kwan, John Amaechi and many more.

Beyond Sport World
Beyond Sport World is an online networking platform that allows any organisation across the globe involved in sport and development to promote their activities and connect. Visit www.beyondsportworld.org

For more information, contact:

Adam Fraser
Head of Communications
Beyond Sport
adam@benchmarksport.com