Regarding the event Dermot said; “I’m so excited to announce that I’m making my Soccer Aid for UNICEF debut on Saturday 6^th September at the best football stadium in the world, Old Trafford. I’m so proud to play for the Soccer Aid World X FC event against England and we’re keeping that trophy – football is not coming home.”

Dermot is no stranger to sports. He played centre midfield for Crumlin United until 2017 and claimed a championship title four years in a row.

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Oh my god, this is so exciting!! Thank you @socceraid for having me join the 2020 World XI team for @unicef_uk on Sunday 6 September. It’s for an amazing cause and I’m so proud to be part of it. Live and exclusive on @itv and @wearestv1 X

A post shared by Dermot Kennedy (@dermotkennedy) on Aug 27, 2020 at 11:04am PDT

Dermot will be joining other musicians like Olly Murs, who will be returning to Soccer Aid after recovering from knee surgery. Marvin Humes, Santan Dave and Chelcee Grimes will also be joining the line-up. Chelcee has written songs for huge acts such as The Saturdays, Dua Lipa and Kylie Minogue. She is also a footballer and currently plays as a forward for Fulham Ladies. Danny Jones has also announced he will be returning to the field in a humorous video with bandmates McFly.

@ItsDannyJones is back!

England’s number will get his fourth Soccer Aid for @Unicef_uk cap next month

… The @mcflymusic boys will be pleased

— Soccer Aid (@socceraid) August 21, 2020

Soccer Aid For UNICEF is the world’s biggest celebrity football match, raising money to give kids the best start in life. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the event will also raise money for Save Generation Covid. Every £1 donated will be trebled to £3 courtesy of the UK government and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Soccer Aid has raised for than £38 million for UNICEF UK since it began in 2006.

Other players that you can look forward to seeing on your screens are celebrities; Jason Manford, Joel Dommett, Kem Centiney, Roman Kemp, Joe Wicks, Lee Mack, Iain Stirling and Mark Wright. There will also be a range of footballers playing for both sides such as; Robbie Keane, Yaya Touré, David James, Kelly Smith, Lianne Sanderson, Patrice Erva, Liv Cooke, Julie Fleeting, Wes Brown, Katie Chapman and Andy Cole with Wayne Rooney announced as manager for the England team.

The makeshift England squad will take on World XI FC on September 6th. The event will be live streamed exclusively on ITV and STV at 6:30pm.

This comes seven years after their last single Love Is On The Radio. The album was scrapped so the band could join up with Busted to form the supergroup McBusted, which toured the UK and Ireland in 2015.

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Felt cute, might get dropped later Thanks @bmguk

A post shared by Dougie Poynter (@idougahole) on Jul 2, 2020 at 3:40am PDT

There was a period of time following this tour where we never thought we would seen McFly together again. Tensions formed among the group following side projects the members took on outside of the band. Tom and Dougie worked on a series of children’s books, Harry was on the 10th season of Strictly Come Dancing, which we went on the win and Danny wrote and produced music for other artists such as Rihanna and One Direction.

The band members spoke openly about how they felt jealous and left out when the others would do things outside of the group, saying; “A lot of those things became the unspoken issues.“ Speaking to the BBC about the rough patch the band experienced, drummer Harry Judd said: “We tried to talk it out a couple of times over those years and it just was very unproductive. So, yeah, there were moments where we talked about, ‘Do we need to get in a room with a therapist and document this?'”

The push the band needed to reunite was delivered by their long-time manager, Matt Fletcher. Matt booked the band to play in the O2 London last year, without telling the band. Tom added: “I think having a date in the diary that said ‘McFly at the O2′ just made us all realise we’d been stupid.”  The show sold out in minutes. The band played their classic hits and it inspired them to release their demos for the album they had originally planned to release before joining McBusted. They were called The Lost Songs.

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To everyone who came to the show tonight, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you. That was one of the best shows of our entire career. YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME!!!!!!! @steviekyle

A post shared by McFly (@mcflymusic) on Nov 20, 2019 at 3:45pm PST

The inspiration didn’t stop there, the band has totally changed the way they make music. The new album began recording at the beginning of 2020, which they decided to compose and write together, rather than waiting for one person to bring the song to the group.

Tom Fletcher, who would have written a lot of songs for the band said to the BBC; “That really puts pressure on you as the writers, to come up with a hit that all your fans will love, but will also reunite you as a band and repair your relationships. We needed to get all of that out of the way first and come at it completely fresh.” Danny added; “It’s the first time I feel like we’ve all been part of it. We were all involved, split down the middle, and it was just such a collaborative, energetic process.”

Posted on 1st May, the five artists picked up instruments and sung together with the goal of uniting and cheering up viewers while they are in lock-down. Mcfly’s very own lead guitarist Danny Jones wrote “Hope this version of the song makes you smile, dance, sing and make staying at home a little easier.”

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#Shinealight for the key workers out there, keeping things going so that we can stay safe. Hope this version of the song makes you smile, dance, sing and make staying at home a little easier #stayhome Big thanks to the boys @niallhoran @ollymurs @tomfletcher @jamesarthur23

A post shared by DANNY JONES (@dannyjonesofficial) on May 1, 2020 at 11:01am PDT

‘Shine a Light’ was originally released by McFly in 2010 with Taio Cruz, and is a big hit with fans. It debuted at number 4 on the UK singles chart and sold over 51,000 copies. In the past, both Horan and Arthur have covered the song, with Horan most recently performing it on his Instagram Live in March.

McFly had planned to go on tour throughout spring and summer 2020, however the dates have been rescheduled due to Covid-19. The UK tour will now go ahead in October and November and, in the meantime, the band have been able to work on projects to entertain and support fans.

McFly recently worked on a cover of their song ‘All About You’, a charity video to raise money for the NHS. The video featured band members Tom Fletcher, Danny Jones, Dougie Poynter, and Harry Judd along with their families who joined in. All royalties gained from the video will be donated to NHS Charities Together.

Niall Horan has also been involved in numerous projects to support people during this difficult time, running regular livestreams on Instagram, taking part in the ‘Together At Home’ campaign, and appearing in Julia Michaels’ cover video for Doctors Without Borders in America.