This week, Chelsea Football Club and Chelsea Foundation launched The Magic of Blue campaign, so we sat down with Chelsea Foundation CEO Laura Cordingley to hear why the growing issue of loneliness and isolation is at the heart of this year’s Christmas campaign…
With around 700,000 Londoners describing themselves as ‘often or always lonely’, according to research from the Greater London Authority, and with 15 per cent of over-65s and nine per cent of young people spending Christmas alone (study by Policy Institute at King's College London), loneliness in London is rising. It is why Chelsea FC and Chelsea Foundation have launched The Magic of Blue campaign in time for Christmas.
As well as a heart-warming film, there is the chance for our fans to donate gifts at our upcoming games, which will then be distributed via campaign charity partners such as Age UK and Shepherd’s Star to support those experiencing loneliness during the festive period.
A percentage of sales from the club’s Christmas range will also be donated to fundraising efforts to support those experiencing loneliness within our local communities.
- Donate via this Magic of Blue link
You can learn more about the Christmas campaign here and by reading our interview with Chelsea Foundation CEO Laura Cordingley below…
Laura, what is it about loneliness that made the Foundation and the club want to make it the focus for this year’s campaign?
When we looked at our 2025-30 strategy, we were really concerned about the challenges people locally are facing. We know that there are some significant mental health challenges in our immediate community and across London more broadly. For example, over 700,000 people say they often or always feel lonely. We know that loneliness is a major precursor to poor mental health.
One of the things we ask ourselves through our work in football is: where can we show up to make a real difference? For us, football is a great unifier - the club brings people together and we know from some of the work we already do in the Foundation that it helps reduce social isolation.
When we looked at where we could make the biggest difference, loneliness felt like the right area to focus on. Not only because it’s a major challenge, but also because we’re already doing work in that space and because we want to help destigmatise loneliness - particularly for younger people.
Quite often, loneliness is associated with older generations, and while that’s true, the statistics show that younger people are also feeling socially isolated. So, this campaign, and the combined power of the club and Foundation, is really about destigmatising loneliness and raising awareness for all ages.
So loneliness is something the Foundation was already working on before this campaign? What are the existing programs already in place?
Yes, a couple of programmes we deliver are already having a great impact on people of all ages.
For example, our Walking Football sessions. Many people who attend those experience loneliness, and self-reporting shows that their feelings of loneliness decrease significantly after coming to Walking Football. Around 15 per cent of participants say they experience loneliness when they start, and after being with us for a short while, we can see that drops to around 2.5 per cent. That’s a meaningful reduction for that age group.
People tell us it’s their time in the week to meet friends - especially after losing loved ones – and it is an opportunity for people to come together.
At the younger end, we have our Premier League Kicks programme, which is targeted at young people in disadvantaged parts of the community. It gives them something positive to do every week, helping them make friends and have fun - which is so positive for their mental health.
I recently visited one of the Kick sessions at the World’s End Estate and spoke to a police officer who said the children talk about how much that weekly session means to them in terms of making friends. A result of that is reduced antisocial behaviour on the estate, so there are powerful by-products of these sessions too.
With the convening power and brand of Chelsea along with our Foundation team, we are working hard to bring people together already but what we also want to do is make sure that over Christmas and the Christmas campaign is not only highlight the work we are doing but also the work of our local community partners.
So we’re partnering charities such as Age UK and local charity Shepherd’s Star, who specifically support people facing social isolation.
The impact of Chelsea and football can’t be underestimated, can it? It feels like something that really unites people in ways that other things can’t.
Absolutely. It is not necessarily specific to this campaign, but for example we have partnerships with the NHS, particularly with our population health initiative which is aimed at tackling the rising health inequalities through programmes such as walking football.
The NHS say to us that they can put on many programmes and interventions, but people don’t always come — because it’s the NHS. Whereas when Chelsea Foundation put programmes on, and we work closely with the NHS to deliver them to the best of our ability, people attend because the brand is trusted and it’s a safe space.
People associate the club with greatness and success and when people see the badge, they think, ‘that’s something I want to be part of and something I want to come along to’.
We all know how sport — and in our case football — is amazing at bringing people together. One of the softer outcomes we see is helping people find friends, feel less isolated, and less lonely. But that in turn, that improves mental wellbeing.
Christmas in particular can feel like a double-edged sword when it comes to loneliness — people can feel their most lonely, but it’s also a chance to unite people…
Yes, Christmas can definitely be bittersweet for some. For us, it’s an opportunity to show up and be a positive force in this space.
The campaign has several strands to it — raising awareness, destigmatising loneliness, pointing people toward support, and highlighting our programs. There’s also a call to action for our staff, supporters, and players to donate gifts and money.
The gifts are symbolic of togetherness at Christmas — a lovely gesture to help bring people together and something which we can do en masse. We saw that last year with our Wrap Up Warm campaign.
Alongside that, the club is donating a percentage of merchandise sales from its Christmas collection to the campaign, and fans can also donate money. We’ll then generate a grant fund to support local charities in 2026, helping them continue their work, and in addition, our staff will volunteer their time as part of the campaign.
What was it about Age UK and Shepherd’s Star that made them the right partners for this campaign?
While we talk about the power of the club, and that is amazing and we can have a great impact, we’re not experts in everything. Age UK and Shepherd’s Star are experts in supporting people who experience social isolation.
It was really important for us to work with charity partners like them because they focus on this issue every day, day in and day out. So for us it is how can we lean into that and support the great work they are doing.
By coming together, we can be greater than the sum of our parts. Using Chelsea’s platform to highlight their incredible work in the community, because smaller charities’ great work can often go unsung and unseen.
It’s important that we, as a club, raise awareness and let our fans and supporters know about the great work happening locally.
Learn more about ourThe Magic of Blue campaign hereand you can see our Christmas collection, where a percentage of all sales from range will be donated to fundraising efforts,here.