Liverpool football legend makes emotional plea at game

The Mgroup Stadium played host to a smattering of former football stars including Souness, Southampton legend Matt Le Tissier and ex-Aston Villa and Oxford United striker Dean Saunders, with Souness’ team – DEBRA Legends – winning the mini-tournament.

Souness is president of the charity called DEBRA which supports and looks for a cure for Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB), also known as ‘Butterfly Skin’.

The 73-year-old won three European Cups and five First Division titles in a six-year stay at Liverpool and also played for Tottenham Hotspur, Rangers, and Middlesbrough.

Souness went on to manage both the Reds and the Gers, as well six other clubs including Newcastle United and Blackburn Rovers.

Graeme Souness managed DEBRA Legends at the charity match held at Oxford City (Image: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire)

The former Scottish international returned to the dugout for the charity match in Oxford and spoke exclusively to the Oxford Mail.

“It’s a fun day,” Souness told the Mail.

“It’s all about awareness [and]…awareness means money.

READ MORE: Oxford United and Plymouth eye Sunderland academy graduate

READ MORE: Liverpool legend Graeme Souness wins charity cup in Oxford

READ MORE: Shock full details of Southampton spying on Oxford revealed

“Money means we can do something for these kids. I’ve been involved with Debra for seven years, and it’s only now that we’ve started to make inroads and help these children.

“We’re now repurposing drugs…and we’re getting results with it.

“There’s no reason why any of your listeners should know this, but if we discovered a drug today, it’s 10 to 15 years before it can get licenced, and it’s tens of millions of pounds to do that.

“We don’t have that kind of money. Big pharmaceuticals won’t go near it because there’s not enough people suffering from this, so they won’t throw money at it to find a cure for this.

Graeme Souness on the touchline at Oxford City (Image: Oxford City FC)

“So we’re left to paddle our own canoe, and our canoe can only be paddled if we get more and more people on board. And that means awareness, which ultimately means raising a few more quid, which enables us to fund more repurposing of drugs.

“To repurpose a drug, it’s costing us about half a million quid for one drug, and there must be, I don’t know the exact number, I think we’ve got three on trial at the moment, but we’re looking to be trialling 10.

“So it’s big money.

“I love football. Football has been so kind to me. It’s great to see some old faces, big ones here who I’ve known forever.

“It’s just great to be amongst some old people, that’s where I feel most comfortable.”

The match at Oxford City was sponsored by NUTMEG! – a nostalgic football manager game, set in the ’80s and ’90s. Manage the teams and iconic players from England’s top four divisions, and relive the glory days when tackles were hard and a goal was a goal.