Swindon Town FC collects aid for Pakistan flood victims

Swindon Town FC set up a football academy in Karachi in January 2021

Swindon Town Football Club has been collecting aid and donations for the victims of flooding in Pakistan.

The League Two club has a connection with the country after setting up an academy in the city of Karachi in 2021.

Pakistan has been hit by its worst floods in years affecting more than 33 million people, with one in seven homes lost.

The aid that has been collected will be sent from Wiltshire to Karachi on Monday, 26 September.

Zavier Austin, the club's vice chair said "I felt we needed to help out and do something."

Football pitches at the Swindon Academy in Karachi have been covered with water

Amongst the items donated so far are clothes, toiletries and first aid kits.

• Images show scale of floods

• 'Everything is gone'

Alex Pike, an academy coach at Swindon Town, said: "From our point of view there is a personal connection and a personal affiliation with Karachi FC, the people of Karachi and the commissioner of Karachi.

People have been bringing in stacks of donations over the past few weeks

"The importance was to help them out, to give something back because every time I've been there, speaking from a personal view, they've been nothing but welcoming, humble and wanting to look after me

"So to be able to give a little something back is important."

Alex Pike is an academy coach at The County Ground

The club's technical director ,Sandro Di Michele, said: "They [people in Pakistan] have nothing, the floods have decimated the area and even though the water levels are now subsiding, disease rates are going over the roof.

"This is, unfortunately for the people of Pakistan, the start of the challenges they are now going to go on and experience."

Sandro Di Michele is Swindon Town FC's technical director