Football club uses social media to find missing children

Top Italian football club A.S. Roma is using its extensive social media following to highlight the plight of missing children. Clubs in Italy compete for originality when announcing new player signings, and the three-time Italian champions had previously enjoyed a reputation for quirky humour.

New signings are now presented alongside the face of a missing child, with information, a phone number and a video clip. Since June last year six children featured have been found—in Great Britain, Belgium and Kenya.

“I don’t think any of us expected a child we’d featured in a video to return home safely,” says Paul Rogers, A.S. Roma’s chief strategy officer. “Obviously we prayed it would happen, but we didn’t expect it.” The club is now trying to convince other big names in European football to follow its lead. [Source: The Local, Italy]