Five international footballers and one World Cup-winning manager today (Wednesday) lent support with their presence at the launch of Chelsea's new Corporate Social Responsibility report. The new Academy and Community Pavilion at Cobham was the venue for the occasion, the all-weather floodlit pitch outside it a hive of activity. The pavilion is the new home for Football in the Community, an important part of the work that falls under the CSR umbrella, and for Petr Cech, John Terry, Salomon Kalou, Joe Cole and Michael Essien, there was the chance to do what they enjoy most - shooting balls towards a target - as they joined in with a FITC session that was taking place. It represented just a small part of the schemes that now cater for 350,000 participants annually throughout London and the south-east. This one involved youngsters from the Kickz anti-crime scheme, plus participants from Chelsea's under 9 girls Centre of Excellence and under 9s boys local to the Cobham area. 'Each year, we increase the work that we do, whether it be locally or globally in partnership with the first team, such as the pre-season tour to Asia,' explained Daniel Gill, FITC's youth development manager for London. 'This a great way of highlighting what we do as a football club that is not just about the money and the big players that are talked about in the newspapers. As one big football club as a whole, a family, this report is a great way of highlighting what we do all year long on a day-to-day basis. 'The new building is great,' Gill added. 'To have classroom facilities, IT space and the staff we have will hopefully take us on to a higher level than we currently are.' 'When I saw the face of my players and the young girls and boys I am satisfied,' said Felipe Scolari who also attended the launch. 'Sometimes the press say players don't like doing this sort of thing but no, they like this with their hearts.' Scolari joined his players in holding up numerals representing the increased annual investment £4.39m on CSR projects, surrounded by children, some of whom are undergoing treatment at the Royal Mardsen Hospital, supported by care professionals from CLIC Sargent, Chelsea's national charity partner since April 2005. 'Since 2005 the charity has increased by 50 per cent the amount we are able to spend on families who have children with cancer,' reports Querida Williams, head of corporate fundraising for CLIC Sargent. 'What is so important to us is long-term partnerships that allow us to plan. We need predictable income.' Chelsea events raised £1,034,567 for the charity during the period covered by the report. 'But in addition to finance, the support we get from Chelsea increases our profile,' explains Williams, 'which in turn encourages more people to support us. 'Events that happened in the year were an Armani evening that was attended by players and got a huge amount of press and glossy magazine coverage. With the school programme that we run, Kick to CLIC, what Chelsea does is take it from a project schools may or may not participate in to something school kids really want to do because their icons, John Terry and Petr Cech, are there promoting it. 'There was a high-profile dinner Peter Kenyon and José Mourinho hosted for us and we were able to invite very high profile guests who were also exposed to CLIC Sargent. So the relationship gives us a breadth of support. 'Hospital visits by the players really boost the feeling of goodwill in patients and is something they remember for a long time, and the Smile Shop launch that Chelsea hosted for our virtual gift catalogue was featured in every single national newspaper. 'The weight Chelsea adds is enormous.' Closing the launch event was a willing John Terry going in goal to face shots from the children, although he wouldn't have been expecting them all at once! Click here to download the new CSR report. The file is in PDF form and is 10MB is size so may take some time to download on slow connections.