Vote for Aaran's Coin for Respect design

Sixteen-year-old Preston schoolboy Aaran Chauhan has made the shortlist of the Coin for Respect competition in association with the Nationwide Building Society and the Football Association.
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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.

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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 Aaran selected as part of the final 11.

Aaran ChauhanAaran Chauhan
Aaran Chauhan

Their coin design was inspired by equality, diversity and unity. Aaran, wanted to show that respect to them meant that everyone deserves respect.

Aaran, who has just left Broughton High School, said: “My design was inspired by the message that everybody deserves respect and I wanted to capture how it is not just the players who are responsible for the game of football.

“It takes different people, doing different jobs, from different walks of life all working together to help bring the beautiful game to life. The world, including sport, is a better place when equality, diversity and unity are an important part of society.

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“It’s great to be one of the 11 shortlisted designs and thank you to everybody who votes for me.”

Now, Aaran needs your help to see his design come to life. The final decision rests with the general public. Voting opened this week and will close on the first day of next month.

Ex-England goalkeeper David James who has supported the campaign from the beginning, said: “Having been involved with this campaign from the start it is brilliant to see it come to life and what the topic of respect means to all of these children who have entered.

Some really strong themes have come through such as equality within gender and race, sportsmanship from both players, coaches and supporters and finally the big thing we have seen throughout is kindness, ensuring kindness is always shown.

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“It has been tough to narrow these down to just eleven as the artistic talent of the UKs children is really strong, I certainly don’t envy the public having to make the final decision!”.

Beth Mead, Lioness, commented: “I loved how many entries we had, from people all over the UK and a variety of ages.

“It shows how much people care about the topic of respect, especially within sport.”

The winner will then be announced during the week beginning 9th August. 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

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Have your say on what the future of respect in football looks like and cast your vote!

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