The Premier League is now watched in 211 countries around the world. The appetite for Premier League football has grown considerably: our matches are now seen by over 77million fans on a weekly basis outside the UK. As a result of this enormous support from overseas, the Premier League has developed an International Good Causes Strategy, aimed at supporting projects around the world.

The pivotal plank of our International Good Causes Strategy is 'Premier Skills', a strategic partnership between the Premier League and the British Council which uses football to develop the coaching and community leadership skills of young adults. More details can be found on the dedicated Premier Skills page.

One of the other major international projects that the Premier League is involved in is "International Inspiration". This is a unique partnership dedicated to creating lasting opportunities for children and young people of all abilities in schools and communities across the world, particularly in developing countries. This is achieved by delivering high quality and inclusive physical education, sport and play.

The £16 million project is run with the London 2012 organising team, who made a pledge to engage and inspire the youth of the world when bidding to win the Olympic Games. Alongside the Premier League, "International Inspiration" is also funded by the Department for International Development (DfID), the British Council and UNICEF. The project was launched in January 2008 by the Prime Minister and has been successfully piloted in five countries: Azerbaijan, Brazil, India, Palau and Zambia. As a result the programme is now being extended to Bangladesh, Ghana, Jordan, Mozambique and Trinidad and Tobago.

The programme has in its first year already achieved a significant amount of positive action and change, including:

 In India, the programme has helped to support a huge national drive for Physical Education and Sport in the run up to the Commonwealth Games in 2010. This includes the launch of a new, national PE programme to reach millions of children in 250,000 rural schools, as well as new targets being set for more PE and sport in schools and the training of thousands of new teachers in PE.

 Over 81% of the districts in the semi-arid North-East region of Brazil have now signed up to a 'Sports and Citizenship Challenge' in order to increase awareness and improve access to sport and play for children and young people. At present almost all districts have completed sports events and approximately 7,200 sports leaders have been trained to work in schools and communities, providing sporting opportunities for their peers.

 31 current school links between International Inspiration countries and schools in the UK, providing opportunities for children in both countries to learn from each other's cultures and experiences.

The Premier League also supports specific education-related international initiatives such as Magic Bus in India.

Magic Bus provides education and recreation for children living in slums in the southern Indian city of Mumbai. It uses sport, mainly football, to get these disadvantaged young people playing and learning - just like boys and girls are meant to.

The Premier League is supporting a three year expansion of Magic Bus which will see tens of thousands more children in Mumbai benefit from playing sport, health education and the opportunities to fulfil their potential. The project will look to offer children the chance to build their self-confidence, teach them how to work as a team and develop communication skills, learn about health and hygiene and break down gender barriers by encouraging boys and girls to play together.

The organisation currently works with 4,000 children and delivers weekly sports sessions close to the children's homes and residential camps at the Magic Bus Centre for Learning & Development.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the then-Chancellor, helped launch Magic Bus on a visit to Mumbai in January 2007.

He said: "Everywhere you go in the world people want to talk about English football, the players and their clubs. I cannot congratulate the Premier League enough for using this power - you could describe it as England's secret diplomatic weapon - to good social effect.

"You can see here today what Magic Bus is all about - opportunity and community - and it is fantastic that the Premier League have teamed up with them to invest in these people.

"A three year commitment by the Premier League - not just here in India but in Africa and South East Asia too - speaks volumes about what Britain has to offer the world, and how in turn Britain is viewed."

Matthew Spacie MBE, Founder of Magic Bus said: "We are delighted to be launching this new partnership with the Premier League, an organisation which we see as providing a benchmark in the footballing fraternity. We look forward to sharing best practice in using football for child development and social inclusion projects."

The Premier League has been a long term supporter of the BBC's Sport Relief programme. This year saw the Premier League commit three years of vital funding for a project in the Western Kenyan town of Kisumu. The project provides education bursaries, healthcare and self-employment support for hundreds of HIV orphans and widows.

In February, the Premier League's all-time top scorer Alan Shearer flew to Uganda to witness the work of a similar project, KCCC, which Sport Relief has been funding in the capital, Kampala. Shearer spent two days meeting people who relied on the project for crucial medical assistance and support.

Uganda is a country where an estimated one million children have been orphaned by HIV/Aids and Shearer was clearly moved by the experience. He said on his return:

"What I've seen will stay with me forever. It may sound like a cliché, but seeing the way people live in this day and age in places like Kampala puts everything into very sharp perspective."

Alongside the Kisumu project, the Premier League worked with Sport Relief to fund an education pack to be used in schools across England. The pack looked at the backgrounds of twenty different footballers across the League, using the range of different player nationalities to promote citizenship and encourage children to learn about countries around the world. The pack was sent to every school in the country and it is hoped will be used as part of citizenship classes that are now part of the curriculum.