A TEAM of famous footballers will be playing a Ryedale club to help them raise money for new facilities.

The Legends, a group of 34 ex-professional players, will be sending 14 of their number to play against Kirkbymoorside Football Club in a fundraising match to be held on Saturday, May 10.

Big names already confirmed include former England player Gary Pallister and ex-Middlesbrough star Craig Hignett.

Club officials say it needs the new facilities because it has grown 10-fold over the last few years, and this growth is expected to continue.

At present the club has two senior teams and nine junior teams and over the next five years it expects this to expand to three senior teams and 11 junior teams.

This season, for the first time in the club’s history, there were also two girls’ junior teams.

To support this, the club needs an extra senior pitch and a number of junior pitches, drainage for the present playing areas, floodlights for the senior pitch, a spectator stand and a new clubhouse with changing facilities, a kitchen and storage.

This will cost £750,000, which can be part-funded by grants, but the rest must be raised by the club.

Organiser Alex Strickland said: “We need new facilities unbelievably desperately.

“Our juniors can’t even get changed in our changing rooms because they are in such a bad state of disrepair.

“They are too dangerous for children, so we regularly end up with 140 kids and nowhere for them to change.

“We need to get moving with our fundraising plans as quickly as possible, or else in the future youngsters might not be able to play football here at all.”

Mr Strickland says he is really looking forward to the weekend, which will begin with the match at 2pm, followed by a reception at the Kings Head Hotel in Kirkbymoorside, where The Legends will be on hand to chat and sign autographs.

The final event of the evening will be a sportsman’s dinner at Kirkbymoorside Golf Club, where pledges and items donated by The Legends will be auctioned off.

The next day enthusiastic golfers can take part in a round of golf with The Legends, although places are limited.

Entrance to the game will be £5 for adults and £2 for children, and tickets for the dinner costs £40.

The club is also looking for businesses to get involved.

For £100, they can buy an autographed shirt from one of the legends, a football signed by all the legends, or a combination of pitch side adverts and adverts in the programme. This amount is also the cost of sponsoring a table at the evening dinner, and guaranteeing a Legend sat at your table.

For more information, email Tim Elliot on tim.elliott@hotmail.co.uk, or Alex Strickland on astrickland81@hotmail.co.uk