They are the latest Barclays Premier League football clubs to offer young people the chance to get involved in four Olympic sports in a groundbreaking £3.8m partnership with the Government.

The scheme, which will be delivered by the Everton Foundation and Liverpool in the Community, will see the clubs link up with Greenbank Sports Academy and secondary schools in the area to create a number of satellite clubs, enabling young people in Liverpool to take up badminton, judo, volleyball and table tennis.

Everton and Liverpool's Premier League 4 Sport initiative was officially launched by Sylvain Distin and Emiliano Insua at Greenbank Sports Academy on 10th November. The pair were joined by a group of young people from local schools to take part in different sporting activities to demonstrate the opportunities now available to young people across Liverpool.

"It was good fun playing the table tennis, badminton and especially the volleyball, although I was told I couldn't do the judo because our injury list was bad enough!" said Distin. "I wouldn't have minded because they were all school children!"

Insua said: "It is great to see all the kids getting involved in all the sports here. They look like they are really enjoying themselves, which is a big part of all sports.

"If you want to be the best at any sport, be that a professional footballer or an Olympian at judo, table tennis or whatever, you have to try hard every day to improve.

"But the most important thing with any sport is that you enjoy yourselves." 

The initiative will help the government's ambition to offer young people five hours of sport a week, as part of its 2012 legacy plans. It will also address the drop-off in sports participation when young people leave secondary school.

Working with the sports governing bodies, the Youth Sport Trust and Sport England, Barclays Premier League clubs aim to get 25,000 young people, aged between 11 and 16, to join local sport clubs in the four Olympic sports during the three year scheme.

Premier League 4 Sport will build on the success of the Premier League's current community programme and aims to get children from all backgrounds involved in non-traditional, club-based sport.

Premier League community development executive Siobhan Atkinson said: "The Olympic sports we're promoting tend not to appear on too many school curriculums and are ones Great Britain have not had too much success in to date.

"We're hoping that by providing lots of opportunities for young people we'll start to see more clubs developing the four sports and hopefully providing some performance pathways to come through.

"This region is unique as Liverpool and Everton are the only two clubs who are working jointly on the programme in the community. They've helped us put together a really coordinated programme across Merseyside.

"This means there should be something on offer for young people not too far away from where they live.

"Having Liverpool and Everton club crests on the T-shirts here means the kids take extra pride in it all.

"It's been interesting talking to some of the players who've got involved. A lot of them seem to turn their hand to table tennis. I think it's a popular activity on pre-season tours!"