Can you explain your involvement with Laureus?
Well, with Laureus I’ve been involved from the start. We’re just entering our second decade and I don’t think any of us anticipated how quickly it’d grow and quite how successful it’d be. There are 70-odd projects now around the world which we’re all active with in some way, shape or form. So, from that day when we stood on that stage in Monaco and Nelson Mandela stood there and said, ‘Sport can make a difference’, he was absolutely 100 per cent right. It’s happening and it’s great to be a part of it.
It’s nice to give something back, and it’s a nice way to give something back. You actually get a reward. It’s a bit like the walks that I continue to do because you actually see things happen, you see progress: rubbish tips in Africa that have become floodlit pitches now, producing seven of the national side from that rubbish tip, as it was. There are a lot of things: the tsunami project down in Sri Lanka where we rebuilt an entire neighbourhood, where we’ve got an active village now, playing facilities and sports facilities probably as good as anywhere else in Sri Lanka now. So it is nice to put something back.
And last night’s event? A success?
Yeah, it was nice to catch up with a few people. It was at quite a spectacular location [Fairmont Bab Al Bahr]. But everything in Abu Dhabi has been spectacular. I mean, this hotel [Emirates Palace] – you need a route map to find your way around! I went to breakfast this morning and actually went to five previous ballrooms before I found the one I needed to be in, so it was quite a trek. Daley Thompson and myself are perhaps not going to sign up with National Geographic for a while. We were hopeless, but we got there in the end.
Everything has been spectacular. Tonight will be very special. The awards night is the icing on the cake – the bit that gets probably the most press, but to be honest with you, it’s the other stuff that goes on for the other 11.5 months of the year that interests me more. This is just the reward at the end.
Do you ever get star-struck walking these red carpets?
No, not really. If you look at the people on the Laureus Foundation, the original members, it’s a pretty impressive gathering, and to be honest with you I think we all respect each other.
