Arsenal Football Club has raised a record £532,816 for its charity of the 2008/09 season, Teenage Cancer Trust, through its ‘Be a Gooner. Be a Giver.’ campaign, smashing the £300,000 target.

It beats last year’s total of £519,541 raised for TreeHouse, the national charity for autism education.

All first-team players and the club’s directors donated a day’s wages from the dedicated match day, 21 December 2008, when Arsenal drew 1-1 with Liverpool. Supporters were encouraged to do the same and a total of £210,000 was raised on the day.

Roger Daltrey, CBE, lead-singer of The Who and Patron of Teenage Cancer Trust said: “As an Arsenal fan I am proud of how the Club and its fans from across the world got behind Teenage Cancer Trust last season.”

The money raised will enable the charity to create a unique unit, designed to make young cancer patients as relaxed and comfortable as possible when receiving treatment, within a new day care cancer centre based at University College Hospital, London.

Arsene Wenger, manager of the team, said, “The fans have been fantastic with their generosity yet again for our Charity of the Season, and it is thanks to them that teenage cancer patients will have this fantastic Education Zone and Social Space within the revolutionary Unit once built.”

Arsenal’s Charity of the Season initiative has been running for six years. Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital is the Charity of the Season 2009/10, which began 15th August.