Boris Johnson calls on footballers to help curb crime

The Mayor is to lobby the top clubs to help fund multi-million-pound initiatives in a bid to halt the rising number of stabbings - 20 teenagers have been killed in the capital this year.

Mr Johnson will this week call on representatives of Arsenal, Chelsea, Fulham, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham asking them to help persuade teenagers not to use knives.

Sources close to the Mayor say he wants to tap into footballers' celebrity status and use their influence to persuade teenagers to put down their weapons.

Mr Johnson and senior City Hall staff will ask the wealthy clubs to stump up million of pounds to help pay for and manage crime-cutting initiatives to stop the wave of violence.

He will argue that the clubs are directly affected by the killings - many have occurred on their doorsteps and involved fans such as 16-year-old Arsenal supporter Ben Kinsella.

Manchester United's Rio Ferdinand, who is Peckham-born, has played an active role in promoting anti-knife campaigns since joining the Damilola Taylor Trust eight years ago. He also helped to launch the Respect Your Life Not a Knife Campaign.

A successful football programme, already adopted in Brent and Croydon and backed by Tottenham Hotspur and Crystal Palace, has helped cut crime by getting teenagers off the streets and on to football pitches.

Parts of Croydon saw a dramatic drop in anti-social behaviour and youth violence when "Kickz", a weekday evening programme praised by Met Commissioner Sir Ian Blair and Gordon Brown, was launched.

The Government has given £ 11million to back the scheme so that it can be introduced to other parts of Britain.

But Conservatives in London want to roll it out in every borough and will call on Premiership clubs to help with the initiative, at a cost of about £40,000 a year for each programme. Other measuresto be announced by Mr Johnson include "street pastors" in every borough and a plan to get more youths involved in uniformed associations such as the Scouts and Girl Guides.

Steve O'Connell, a Tory member of the Metropolitan Police Authority's finance committee on the London Assembly, met Mr Johnson last month to discuss the details.

Mr O'Connell said the clubs were "awash" with money and asked Mr Johnson to lobby them personally. He said there was a growing feeling among the Mayor's inner circle that more money was urgently needed to bring to an end to the violence.

"There is really good work with the football community going on but I think we are all particularly conscious of the terrible events of this year," he said. "We need the Premiership clubs to up their game and roll up their sleeves and make an extra contribution.

"In the scheme of a Premiership weekly wage we are not talking about enormous amounts of money but the prize for everyone, including the clubs, is enormous."

A spokesman for Chelsea said: "It is a very important issue and we are always receptive to discussing programmes that can help some of the problems that we have got. Something like two and a half per cent of our turnover goes on corporate social responsibility programmes, which is more than any other FTSE 100 company."

London's four other Premiership sides were unavailable for comment.