Line of Duty stars sponsor west Belfast football sides
TWO girls’ football teams in west Belfast have joined the fight against “bent coppers” as their new kits will have Line of Duty’s AC-12 logo emblazoned across the front.
Three stars of the show volunteered to sponsor Belfast Celtic Young Men and Ladies kits for the girls’ under-13 and under-15 teams.
Martin Compston, who plays Steve Arnott in the hit BBC cop drama, noticed a social media plea for sponsorship and, being from Greenock near Glasgow, the huge Celtic supporter was only too keen to help.
Not only that but he had soon enlisted the help of his AC-12 Superintendent Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar) and “good mate” Kate Fleming (Vicky Mcclure).
“I asked our ladies’ team group chat to see if anybody knew of a sponsor and then one of the players Nuala Rafferty came back on Thursday night with a screenshot of Martin Compston’s message on Twitter,” explained the club’s ladies’ manager Ryan Caddell, who could have been forgiven for asking if Nuala thought he had come up the Lagan in a bubble.
“I thought it was a wind-up but then Martin got in contact with me through Instagram, asking what we needed.
“He just said ‘no problem’ straight away and then he messaged back a while later to say Vicky and Adrian wanted to be involved as well.
“I sent him the template of the kit. I was actually thinking they might put a charity logo on it but as soon as I asked about what logo he wanted, it was AC12. He was very hands on, which was great. He was so interested in how the kit would look.
“Now we just have to get it ordered from our supplier.”
He revealed the club is getting requests about how to buy the kits.
“Our kit is a bespoke kit so we have to put in specific orders. That means there might be a few weeks turnaround on it but we are looking into it because, as I say, so many people have been asking already.”