The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have confirmed their new campaign with the Football Association (FA) will be officially launched on Sunday. The royal couple will tackle mental health issues with the help of their Heads Together charity and the FA. Taking to Kensington Palace's official Instagram page, they released this statement: "#HeadsUp will harness the influence and popularity of football to help show the nation that we all have mental health, and it is just as important as physical health."
The news of the collaboration was first revealed in May. The initiative will run throughout the 2019/20 season to get all football fans - in particular men - talking about their mental fitness. Asked about why men opt not to discuss their mental health, Prince William said at the time: "I think men find that very difficult to talk about, talk about stuff that really bothers them."
He added: "I think emotions, feelings, are kind of like a bit alien over here – we don't really want to touch them too much because we're worried about how we're going to react or how people think about about us." Heads Up, billed as the biggest ever conversation around mental health, is a partnership between the FA and Heads Together, the campaign spearheaded by the Royal Foundation.
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The campaign will be launched at the FA Community Shield and will culminate at the FA Cup Final in May 2020. It will be visible across all levels of football, including the men's and women's England teams. "The UK has taken a step forward and I'm proud of the part Heads Together and our partners have played in that," William added. "Since launching the first campaign, I have wanted to do more to get men talking. It's no surprise that they've been the hardest group to shift.
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"As president of the FA, I saw an opportunity to bring the sport I love, that many men talk about more than anything else in their lives, to help lead the next phase of the conversation," he continued. "Over the last two years, we've been working behind the scenes to decide the best way to harness the power of football to really change the way men think about mental health."
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