A SCHEME encouraging youngsters to read has been kick-started by North-East football stars.

Middlesbrough's Ugo Ehiogu, Gareth Southgate and Robbie Stockdale joined fellow Premiership stars from Sunderland and Newcastle to help launch Read the Game, a literacy campaign which taps into the region's football passion.

A grant from the Football Foundation made it possible for 10,000 posters featuring the players to be distributed free to every school in the North-East.

Other players featured in the campaign were Sunderland's Darren Williams, Kevin Phillips and Niall Quinn, as well as Steve Harper, Shay Given and Jermaine Jenas, of Newcastle.

The project, promoted by the Football Foundation and the National Literacy Trust, was devised by Easington and Seaham Education Action Zone in east Durham.