ALS charity match raises 4.3 million euro for research into the disease

Juan Carlos Unzué, former goalkeeper and promoter of the charity match to raise funds for ALS research, María José Arregui, executive president of the Luzón Foundation, and Rafael Yuste, vice-president of FC Barcelona, announced this Friday in the Auditori at Spotify Camp Nou that the charity match between FC Barcelona and Manchester City last August 24 raised 4,362,872 euros.

Unzué explained that 10% of the money will go to the Luzón Foundation. 40% (€1.5 million) goes to the European TRICALS platform made up of researchers, associations and charities working to promote clinical trials on ALS, and the remaining 60% (€2.3 million) will be given out as “Unzué-Luzón-Areces” research grants.

'A lesson in life'

Unzué said the intention was to “stick to our word of doing things transparently" and thanked everyone for helping to get the game off the ground and especially the fans who came to the stadium. "The fans kept their word too. Football attracts a lot of people and wouldn't be a bad idea to have a charity match every year for a different cause and thus raise the value of football."

Yuste said he was "proud that everyone had come together to achieve this ... It means we can continue saying that Barça is more than a club ... Juan Carlos, you have given us a lesson in life with this project.”

María José Arregui spoke of the importance of such a major fundraiser as this, telling Unzué that her organisation “will be eternally grateful to you for this, and for such awareness raising and publivity. You are our captain and you'll be with us for many more years."

ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) is a disease with no known cure that affects almost 4,000 people in Spain alone. Only 34% of patients live more than 4 years beyond diagnosis, according to a study by the Luzón Foundation itself.