His incredible work doesn’t fall within the award criteria
Marcus Rashford has been doing incredible all year. I think we can all agree on that. The Manchester United forward has almost singlehandedly helped make the issue of free school meals and child food poverty into one of the biggest talking points in the United Kingdom through his activism, and has led to a public backlash on what appears from the outside to be ambivalence from the government towards hungry children.
In the past week alone, following on from the Tories’ decision to vote against extending free school meals, Rashford’s work has seen hundreds of businesses around the UK volunteer to offer children on half-term free meals each lunchtime.
As a result of this selfless work, Rashford has understandably been touted by most people to win the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year award, but it appears that this is unlikely to happen.
Despite being odds-on favourite to win the award with bookmakers, BBC guidelines dictate that sportspeople can only be considered due to their ‘sporting achievements’, rather than personal or charitable.
This would leave Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton, who last weekend broke Michael Schumacher’s all-time record for most Grand Prix wins, as the clear favourite in his stead.
It’s unlikely to matter much to Rashford, who has worked tirelessly to help improve the lives of children in the UK, eager to ensure that the most vulnerable in the country are not forced to experience what he did as a child.
