Ellan Vannin football side’s new home and away kits will bear the ‘End Polio Now’ logo.
It is believed that the initiative by the Manx International Football Alliance and the Rotary Club of Douglas is the first time that any international team has allowed its match shirts to be used to promote a campaign such as this.
The move was announced at a lunch held at the Mount Murray on Thursday to to coincide with World Polio Day which takes place tomorrow, Friday, October 24.
MIFA chief executive Malcolm Blackburn said: ‘As a very small island in the Irish Sea we often undervalue what we can achieve on the global stage and when the Rotary Club of Douglas contacted MIFA to ask if we would be willing to allow Ellan Vannin to have the End Polio Now logo on its shirts and change the away kit to purple it suddenly dawns on you that our island is not insignificant.
‘We are delighted and honoured that Rotary International see us as being useful in the global fight to eradicate polio and to be the first international team in the world to be able to use its exposure potential for such an amazing goal is humbling.’
Since 2011 the Rotary Club of Douglas has raised more than £30,000 for the cause. This has allowed over 150,000 children to be immunized against polio. The Club has also worked closely with the International Development Committee in securing additional funding of £90,000 payable over three years.