IN an age when top footballers are multi-millionaires, you could be forgiven for wondering why charities exist to support retired stars. But go back 50 years and the rewards were not nearly the same.

"Life was a battle when players were on £2 per week in the late 50s," according to Peter Keeling, secretary of Bolton Wanderers Former Players Association.

Next month, a dozen former stars will appear at the Reebok Stadium for an Audience with the Soccer Legends, to raise cash for ex-players associations.

Staged in association with The Bolton News, the event will star Sir Tom Finney, Bert Trautmann, Jack Charlton, Mike Summerbee, Frank Worthington, Alan Ball, Viv Anderson, Roy Hartle, Phil Neal, Denis Law, Bryan Robson and Peter Reid.

Mr Keeling said the funds will help his association, be it providing financial assistance to ex-players who have fallen on hard times or visiting ailing former professionals.

Another job involves simply keeping people in touch.

"Playing football is such a fantastic life and it's terrible when it stops," he said.

"The dressing room is a holy place for footballers so it's important to keep the guys together to recreate that camaraderie."

Mr Keeling also points out that only the very top stars lead the movie-star lifestyles.

The association has 60 members and mixes legends such as Roy Hartle, its chairman, and president Frank Worthington with more recently retired stars like John McGinlay.

It organises golf and cricket events along with sportsmen's evenings.

Sports writer and former athlete, Mr Keeling was one of the first football agents "in the days when agents looked after the interests of footballers and not themselves".

He later became a fitness coach at Stoke City and Ipswich Town, but has had strong links with Bolton since establishing a sports media agency in the town in the late 1950s.

Mr Hartle, a friend from those days, asked Mr Keeling to help revive the former players group a decade ago.

"People had lost interest in the idea and for a long time there was no ex-players association, but now we are going from strength-to-strength," he said.