Worldwide stats show that 40million people currently live with the disease and over 70,000 adults and children suffer from the virus in the UK.

World AIDS Day was first launched in 1988 and aims to increase awareness, fight prejudice and improve education while reminding people that the risk of HIV hasn’t gone away.

In Africa, football is used as a way of educating youngsters about the virus as HIVSport’s Andy Harvey explained: “Projects run by local organisations in places such as South Africa and Cameroon teach sport coaches how to combine football training with information on preventing and fighting HIV/AIDS.

“HIV is no barrier to playing sport at any level. In fact physical activity combined with treatments help people living with HIV to lead healthy lives,” said Andy.

“Both HIVSport and The FA encourage all projects that can harness the global power of football to help teach young people how to protect themselves and their partners,” he added.

For more information on how you can help raise awareness about HIV and AIDS please contact Andy Harvey, Director of HIVSport, at andy.harvey@hivsport.org.uk.