UK Socca affiliate, Leisure Leagues was delighted this week to welcome the Julian Knight, MP – the Chairman of the Digital, Culture, Music and Sport committee – to talk about their campaign to get the nation fit.

It’s become ever more vital, especially this week, after a study showed that obese people were more 48% more likely to die of Coronavirus than those who were not.

The findings, which the lead researcher described to the Guardian Newspaper as “scary”, show that the risks for people with obesity are greater than previously thought.

Mr Knight, one of the most influential politicians in the country, said: “It was a pleasure to catch up with Steph and the Leisure Leagues team today in Solihull. They’re doing a fantastic job of getting people fit and active, and I look forward to seeing their great work continue.”

Fantastic to welcome Solihull MP @julianknight15 to the Leisure Leagues offices for some documentary filming with our TV crew 🎥🎬

We also discussed our #summerofweightloss campaign, as we look to get the nation moving again through 6-a-side football💪 pic.twitter.com/t4vazuy2LQ

— Leisure Leagues (@leisureleagues) August 25, 2020

UK Socca has been working with organisations like Leisure Leagues and ISF to get the nation moving since we were able to begin again after lockdown.

Thankfully thousands of people have come backt to small sided football since restrictions were lifted, with the rest to begin soon, but also we have started new competitions up and down the land, and thousands of new players have signed up across the network.

Leisure Leagues’ Executive Director Stephanie Bullock, pictured above with Mr. Knight, said the figures around Covid deaths were “extremely worrying”, and added: “These are exactly the sort of people that we are doing this for. They might not always be the best footballers, they might not always be the gym members – and for many our leagues might be the only exercise they get. It is wonderful to get so many people signing up.”

Stephanie thanked the MP for visit and said: “It was a pleasure to welcome Mr. Knight. We were able to have a good chat with him across a wide range of subjects, and about the challenges we are very proud to have overcome so we can emerge even stronger.”

Amongst the topics for discussion were the development of the sport in the UK, plus the return of international tournaments.

More news on both, soon.