The first anniversary celebrations of the Canary Wharf Football Academy were held at the Canary Riverside Plaza Hotel.

East London Advertiser: Canary Wharf Academy celebrates phenomenal year (Pic: Emdad Rahman)Canary Wharf Academy celebrates phenomenal year (Pic: Emdad Rahman) (Image: Archant)

Players, parents, coaches, sponsors and supporters cane together at the glitzy award ceremony to learn more about the academy, its origins and future plans.

More than 100 people were in attendance to listen to co-founder Foysol Ali height the club ethos and there were televised messages of support from Bangladesh national coach Jamie as well as a whole host of present and former West Ham United stars in Declan Rice, Jack Wilshere and Bobby Zamora.

A football shirt signed by all the West Ham players was amongst some of the items donated on the day.

All the children received healthy lunch box meals and modelled their football kits from its sponsors and our Angela Hunt from the Yianis Christodoulou Foundation handed out medals to the children, parents, and other sponsors involved with the Academy.

East London Advertiser: Canary Wharf Academy celebrates phenomenal year (Pic: Emdad Rahman)Canary Wharf Academy celebrates phenomenal year (Pic: Emdad Rahman) (Image: Archant)

The YCF was also proud to receive an award for sponsoring the academy in 2019.

Ayas Ali from CWA said: "We have worked extremely hard to bring our community together and now have an academy we can be proud of and our plane for the future are very exciting indeed."

His colleague Aftar Ali added: "We are dedicated and we focus on our partnership with the players and parents. Thanks to everyone for the support - It means a lot to us."