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      in Soccer

      These kids football clubs have all been handed £1k with the Sun’s grant – and you could too

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      THESE kids’ football clubs scored a win by getting their hands on cash from our fab Footie For All Fund.They are the first delighted recipients of £1,000 grants to help keep their squads going.
      Our Footie For All Fund has given out £150,000 in grants to deserving clubsCredit: NNP
      We teamed up with Tesco’s Stronger Starts programme
      Former England star John Terry backed our campaignCredit: Getty
      Last month we teamed up with Tesco’s Stronger Starts programme to give out £150,000 in grants to deserving clubs.
      And we have been inundated with stories of teams making a difference in their communities.
      From buying new boots and kit to allowing more kids to play for free, grants will help them make more of an impact.
      And there is still time for you to enter as the new deadline for applications is now noon on November 13.
      read more on football
      Former England star John Terry backed our campaign to keep kids playing despite the cost-of-living crisis making it difficult for parents to fund their children’s training.
      John said: “I’ve seen first-hand how football can change someone’s life.
      “It doesn’t matter if it becomes a career or just something you continue playing for fun.
      “For anyone to lose the chance to play footie would be a tragedy, but we all know times are tough for everyone thanks to rising prices.
      Most read in Football
      “I loved my time playing at grassroots level when I was little, and I want everyone to have that feeling of joy.
      “It’s great that The Sun’s Footie For All Fund is helping clubs out, thanks to Tesco’s generous donation.”
      Christine Heffernan, Tesco Group communications director, said: “From the range of applications that have come in so far and the stories we have heard, it’s clear to see that football clubs up and down the country need the support more than ever and that we’re reaching hundreds more children as a result of this funding.
      “It’s encouraging to know that the Tesco Stronger Starts and Footie for All partnership will be getting children into doing what they love, playing more footie more often.”
      Here we show how our deserving recipients are putting the money to work so far.
      BEAMISH FC, STANLEY, COUNTY DURHAM
      THIS grassroots team near Gateshead gives more than 450 kids a chance to play football in a safe space throughout the week.
      The club is using its £1,000 grant to purchase full kits for its new reception-aged group to ensure no child feels out of place.
      It means the tots, aged four to five, will get a Beamish FC shirt, shorts and jumper as well as a pair of sports socks.
      Team fundraising manager, Deborah Maddison, told The Sun: “We operate in quite a deprived area which means that the cost of living is hitting families hard.
      “As a club, we work really hard to make sure it is as accessible as possible for parents to send their kids here.
      “Everything we do costs, which means we rely on grants like this to keep the club up and running.”
      HEMINGTON HAMMERS FC, DERBY
      THE Derbyshire club used to only have adult teams but decided last year to open up an under-tens squad aimed at deprived kids.
      The move came after they heard from parents that many children in inner-city Derby weren’t able to play the beautiful game due to financial barriers.
      Hemington Hammers opened up last year to give deprived kids a chance to play footieCredit: Paul Tonge
      Club vice chairman Andrew Bennett said: “We’ve seen their confidence grow as they’ve got better and better.
      “They started the season losing most of their games and now they’re starting to win some.”
      Hemington Hammers is using the £1,000 grant to accelerate their plans to take more kids on, purchase kit, pay for the training of new coaches for additional teams and cover admin costs such as first aid kits.
      Andrew added: “We have seen that there is a demand for low-cost football, as we filled the first team in a matter of weeks.
      “Now we hope to get more kids involved.
      “The simple thing is, the more funding we get to put on the sessions, the cheaper we will make it for the kids, so they always have somewhere to play.”
      PELICAN PARK COMMUNITY TRUST, HULL
      PELICAN Park Community Trust in Hull does more than helping kids stay fit – it provides a chance for them to socialise and get away from potentially tough situations at home.
      Now, thanks to The Sun and Tesco’s Footie For All grants, 50 more children are able to attend.
      Pelican Park Community Trust in Hull provides a chance for kids to socialise and get away from potentially tough situations at homeCredit: Glen Minikin
      Jannette Hornby, charity manager, said: “We don’t want anyone to miss out on proper football training because of personal circumstances.
      For many, it is a chance to run around and play in a safe environment, and that is vital for kids of all ages.”
      Hull is one of the most underprivileged areas in the country, and a quarter of children in the city live with low income families.
      The charity has been subsidising households who can no longer afford the training fees due to financial struggles.
      They also offer a boot swap and provide kit free of charge, so no one is left out.
      Read More on The Sun
      Within just a few sessions, coaches and staff see a huge difference in the children who come.
      Jannette added: “It’s a gateway for everyone into feeling better.”
      THERE’S STILL TIME TO NET £1,000 FOR YOUR CLUBDOES your child’s football club need a cash injection to keep it on the pitch?
      Our Footie For All Fund is offering £1,000 grants to under-18s sides who are struggling in the financial crisis.
      We have teamed up with Tesco’s Stronger Starts programme to give out £150,000 in grants and want to hear about your local club and what it does for the community.
      We launched our fund after teams across the country told us how some kids are dropping out as families struggle financially.
      Perhaps your side wants to offer parents help with fees, or needs new kit or space to play on.
      See tescostrongerstarts.org.uk/footiefund to apply.
      Applications close on November 13.
      Grants are given on a rolling basis so it could start helping your club within weeks. More

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      in Soccer

      How Everton chairman Bill Kenwright rose from Corrie to chairman of hometown club via some of West End’s biggest hits

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      IN a long and distinguished career, Bill Kenwright was many things to many people.To theatre-goers he was the impresario behind West End hits Blood Brothers and Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
      Bill Kenwright lived with his long-term partner, actress Jenny SeagroveCredit: Rex
      Bill as Gordon, left, on Corrie in 1969Credit: Rex Features
      Bill directed West End hit Blood Brothers in 1983Credit: Donald Cooper
      To football fans he was chairman of his beloved Everton FC for 19 years — and to soap fans Coronation Street’s Gordon Clegg, who appeared from 1968 to 1969 then popped up again until 2012.
      But to all who knew him, his death on Monday, aged 78, from liver cancer was a bitter blow.
      Bill lived with his long-term partner, actress Jenny Seagrove, 66, and had a daughter, Lucy, from a previous relationship.
      Despite his fame he was an intensely private man and hated being interviewed.
      Read More on Bill Kenwright
      He said: “People don’t understand this about me because I shout my productions to the rooftops and love talking about Everton.”
      He added: “I am very private, but can only talk in one way — though I don’t want to come across as a passionate buffoon.”
      Liverpool born and bred, Bill got the acting bug after childhood trips to the city’s cinemas with is gran.
      While he lived most of his adult life in London, he maintained a lifelong attachment to his home city and said “my past was what moulded me”.
      Most read in Football
      He added: “I don’t think I had an easy childhood. I was very shy, nervous and timid and we weren’t rich. In Everton player Dave Hickson I found a sort of guide — he taught me how to dare.
      “From my family I had protection and comfort and, in Mum, a spirit that said I could do anything I wanted. I wanted to be Errol Flynn and I loved Alan Ladd in (1953 Western) Shane. I didn’t just want to be an actor, I wanted to be a film star.”
      Already treading the boards at the Liverpool Playhouse at age 12, he left home at 17 to join a London youth theatre and in 1968 made his Corrie debut as teenager Gordon, who lived above the paper shop with his aunt and uncle.
      But Bill shocked producers by leaving after just a year. His time in the soapland spotlight had led to him wanting to work behind the scenes.
      Recalling the late Corrie veteran Pat Phoenix, who played Elsie Tanner, he said: “I remember Pat telling me on day one, ‘You’re a good-looking lad from Liverpool — and you’ve got no idea what will happen to you when you appear on that screen’.
      Everton chairman Bill and owner Farhad Moshir unveil boss Frank Lampard in January 2022Credit: Getty
      Bill as a star guest on pop show Lift Off, 1970Credit: Rex
      “I was shocked. My character was the first teenager written into a soap to attract teenage viewers. It was an extraordinary situation and I really didn’t like it. That’s one of the reasons I left.”
      Bill’s love of the West End drew him to producing and directing and his company, Bill Kenwright Ltd, is the world’s most prolific theatre production company in the world, bringing hundreds of productions to theatres across the planet.
      A close collaborator of West End kings Sir Tim Rice and Lord Lloyd- Webber, Bill directed their hits Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar.
      He was nominated for a London Theatre Critics’ Award for his work on West Side Story and a Tony Award for a Broadway run of Blood Brothers.
      He also produced numerous films.
      These included 2009 romcom Cheri, starring Michelle Pfeiffer, 2021 hit Heathers: The Musical, and this year’s comedy thriller The Kill Room, starring Uma Thurman and Samuel L. Jackson, plus Gemma Arterton crime drama The Critic.
      In 2001 he won a CBE for services to film and theatre.
      I was a timid child but I could go on my own to Goodison Park because I felt safe there. When Dave Hickson and that team ran out on to the pitch, I was in heaven with my gods.Bill Kenwright
      But it was perhaps his first love, football, that inspired him most.
      A director at Everton from 1989, he became club chairman in 2004 and remained so until his death.
      The club shone a light into his lonely childhood.
      He said: “I was more timid than shy but I could go on my own to Goodison as a kid because I felt safe there.
      “When Dave Hickson and that team ran out on to the pitch I was in heaven with my gods. It gave me a feeling of absolute safety.”
      He married Anouska Hempel, the actress turned society hotelier and interior designer, in 1978, only to divorce after less than a year.
      There followed a long relationship with actress Virginia Stride, now 87, which produced daughter Lucy, now 45 and a successful TV producer with two children.
      But his true love and partner for his last three decades was actress Jenny Seagrove who he met at the Liverpool Playhouse in 1993 when she was starring in Noel Coward play Present Laughter.
      She said in 2017: “Bill’s a force of nature, larger than life.
      “It’s a privilege to live with him. He’s got the biggest heart of anybody I’ve ever met. He’s made me a better person.”
      She added: “I’ve made him feel safe, given him the confidence to dive off that high board.”
      Read More on The Sun
      A self-confessed workaholic, Bill was worth an estimated £33million — but lived for passion, rather than money and its trappings.
      He said: “I never see myself retiring, not at all.”
      Bill married and divorced Anouska Hempel – an actress turned society hotelierCredit: Rex
      Bill said: ‘I was a timid child but I could go on my own to Goodison Park because I felt safe there’Credit: Handout More

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      in Boxing

      Baby Tyson was 1lb and docs said he’d die. I said: ‘No, he’s a warrior. He’ll be 7ft tall & world champ, says John Fury

      by

      JOHN Tyson, the dad of WBC world heavyweight champ Tyson Fury, has written a knockout account of his wild and wayward life as a bare-knuckle fighter and no-nonsense minder – and we have exclusive extracts from the book, When Fury Takes Over. In Day One he tells how premature baby Tyson was not expected to survive – and how Jesus spoke to him in his jail cell.
      Tyson Fury’s dad John has written a book about raising a future world heavyweight champCredit: MacMillan
      The knockout account tells how Jesus appeared to him when he was in prisonCredit: Alamy
      “THE night that Tyson was born is something I’ll never forget.It was August, and the baby was due in seven weeks’ time.
      My wife Amber and I had had problems with previous births.
      Hearing that she had gone into labour, I left work and went straight to Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester.
      It was a foul night of thunder and lightning, rain pouring down as if it was the end of the world.
      READ MORE ON THE FURYS
      Again, there were complications for my lad. Tyson had been born massively premature and weighed only 1lb — small enough to fit into the palm of my hand.
      The doctors said he wouldn’t make it, but I saw something completely different — a little warrior with a glint in his eye and his fist held up, as if he was ready to take on the world.
      I said to the doctor: “That boy is special, he is going to live and he’s going to be almost 7ft tall, weigh 20st, and one day he’s going to be the heavyweight champion of the world, mark my words.”
      When a gypsy gets a funny feeling in his stomach, you should always listen to them — the chances are they’ll be right.
      Most read in Boxing
      John reveals that he had a funny feeling about Tyson when he arrived, even though he was born prematurelyCredit: MacMillan
      As Tyson grew up, there were problems for the first four years. He kept overheating and suffering delusions.
      He would have terrifying hallucinations that lions, monsters and demons were trying to eat him.
      Amber and I would pack him in ice and rush him to hospital. I started to take him outside for the natural medicine of fresh air.
      Once, I took him to a golf course. I was mucking around with a golf club when the president of the club appeared in the distance.
      He started shouting and walking towards me, so I picked up Tyson and legged it.
      I tried to jump over a ditch but the bank gave way beneath me and I landed with all my 20st on my baby son’s leg and snapped it.
      It sounded like a dry stick being broken. I took him home, he was shaking and sobbing in my arms.
      Naturally Amber was fuming, and I was devastated. It was one of the most painful experiences of my life, never mind for my poor son.
      “How could you get this wrong?” I asked myself. How can a father break his own child’s leg?
      “You can see the bone sticking out of his leg!” screamed Amber.I hung my head in shame.
      “You’re absolutely right. I’m a misfit and not capable of being a father,” I agreed.
      We took him to hospital where they performed emergency surgery on the limb.
      It haunted me, seeing his little leg with a steel bolt through it.
      For me there is nothing worse than causing pain to one of my sons, intentional or not.
      Now, 33 years on, it still brings a tear to my eye when I think of it.
      Over the next six weeks, Tyson wore a kind of protective pot on his leg.
      It didn’t stop him crawling around the house at speed or drawing boxing gloves.
      After this traumatic event, I’m glad to say the rest of Tyson’s childhood was smooth as milk.
      He was 11 years old when he decided he wanted to take up boxing.
      Me, I didn’t want him to go down that route, so I gave him no encouragement whatsoever.
      But he was determined to do it and he found an amateur gym on the other side of Wythenshawe.
      When he went to school in Styal, Cheshire, he was huge compared to the other boys in his class.
      He would often get taunted by older boys, but the difference between Tyson and me was that he learned self-control and discipline at an early age, and he was better at controlling his red mist.”
      John recalls how Tyson was 11 when he decided that he wanted to take up boxing, well before he broke several recordsCredit: Alamy
      John says he did not give Tyson any encouragement to begin with, as he did not want his son to go down that routeCredit: Getty
      “I REMEMBER the summer of 1969 and one of many trips to Yorkshire.
      Some of my mum’s people were up there working at Martin’s Farm in Norton, picking fruit on a family estate called Castle Howard, the baroque palace in Garfield II and Brideshead Revisited.
      Six miles from the estate was a huddle of derelict red-brick farm buildings, where we pitched up our trailer and car.
      One day a whole lot of blackbirds and crows started to gather. There must have been more than 100.
      It was like something out of that Hitchcock film, The Birds.
      In Romani lore — my mother’s lore — a large collection of black-feathered birds signifies the coming of death and a predator among us.
      The messengers of doom then started their assault on our home.
      The air was full of their cawing, the flapping of their wings and their talons tearing at the paintwork.
      The noise was insufferable. Then, as quickly as they had come, they began to disperse.
      My dad had this ominous knack of knowing when something bad was about to happen.
      “Something terrible has happened to one of our own,” he said.
      Within half an hour, we saw a solitary police car rattling down the lane toward us. This was the messenger of doom.
      The copper looked at my parents uncomfortably and said: “Your nephew, Owen, has just been killed in a car accident, just 15 miles down the road.”
      It was my cousin. At the time the crows had attacked us, Owen had died and met his maker.
      Six years earlier, he had been hawking carpets with my granny.
      At one door, a woman’s gaze fell on Owen and she said: “Do not ever take this boy near the coast, because it will be his demise.”
      It had been six years from when the medium first laid eyes on Owen, to his horrible death, just a short distance from the sea.”

      “ON both sides of my family, we were very religious.
      When I went to prison for the first time, serving an 11-year sentence for a fight in which another traveller lost an eye, I never questioned my faith, nor tried to blame it on God that he had landed me in such a horrible place.
      It was my actions, and my actions alone that had taken me there.
      Jesus has come through for me that many times when things have got rough — more times than I can remember.
      Two years into my sentence, Tyson rang up, sounding hollow and scared.
      He was in Sheffield hospital and his little son Prince, who was only one year old, was very ill with meningitis. “They told me he’s going to die, Dad.”
      I said: “Listen, son, they told me you were going to die, so that’s rubbish.
      “Your son is going to be all right. I’m going to call you tomorrow in the morning, and your son is going to be here.”
      Back in my cell, I sat down on my bunk and took up my old Bible.
      As I read, the words were leaping out at me in a more pronounced way than usual.
      It was as if the letters had been dipped in gold.
      The more I read, the calmer I was becoming. I said a prayer under my breath: “Dear Lord, I’m in need of help today. Well, not me, my grandson.
      “He’s struggling a bit, but keep your hands on him and do the best you can for him, please.” Then I fell asleep.
      My eyes open suddenly. At the bottom end of the bed stands the figure of a man, and though I can’t see his face in much detail, I know it is the shape of Jesus.
      Then with a voice as clear as a bell, the figure says: “Everything will be OK.”
      Pure joy passes through me, like someone has just told me that I’m to be released from my prison sentence in the morning.
      It’s four o’clock in the morning and I feel like bursting out into song!
      At 6.45am I call Tyson to see how his boy is. “Everything’s all right, isn’t it, son?”
      “Yes, Dad, it is. You were right again. He came right in the night — some time between 3 and 4am.”
      Read More on The Sun
      After that moment, I sailed through the rest of my sentence.”

      When Fury Takes Over, by John Fury, (Macmillan) is out on Thursday, £22.

      John Fury’s book is out Thursday, for £22Credit: MacMillan More

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      in Boxing

      I gouged out a gypsy’s eye and have to avoid crowds because of my violent temper, reveals Tyson Fury’s dad

      by

      SHOWING a Zen-like calm, Tyson Fury weighed in for another bone-crushing heavyweight contest – as his snarling dad John went berserk.It was 2018 in Belfast, and in the crowd the raging elder Fury had spotted Tyson’s future opponent — the then world champion Deontay Wilder — and a “red mist” descended.
      John Fury with son Tyson in the boxing ringCredit: Alamy
      John said: ‘On my gravestone I’d like them to put, ‘John Fury, a man of extremes’Credit: Alamy
      John celebrates victory with Tyson and team after the WBC World HeavyweightCredit: Getty
      In an exclusive interview, former bare-knuckle boxer John told me: “Wilder was cussing us and my switch flicked.
      “My mother used to say, ‘No matter who they are, son, stand your ground’. I don’t care if you’re the heavyweight champion of the world, you’re not going to put it on me and walk away.”
      Well-versed in hardcore violence — John was once jailed for gouging out a man’s eye — he had to be restrained by security guards.
      Tyson, who inherited his father’s fighting prowess, if not his fiery nature, “had a few quiet words” to calm him down.
      READ MORE ON TYSON FURY
      Now John has catalogued his eventful life in an autobiography, appropriately named When Fury Takes Over.
      Tyson — current WBC world heavyweight champion — has written the foreword, describing John as “our clan leader”.
      The book charts John’s life, from his birth in a “bow-top gypsy wagon” on an Irish roadside in Tuam, County Galway, to becoming a Netflix reality TV star.
      Speaking from Saudi Arabia — where Tyson is preparing for his fight on Saturday with Cameroonian Francis ­Ngannou — John said: “I wake up every morning now thinking it’s a dream. My childhood was very different to that of my kids’.
      Most read in Boxing
      “Growing up, it was a struggle to get the bare necessities like running water, electricity and a fixed abode.”
      One of four boys, John is the son of Irish traveller Hughie and English Romany gypsy Patience, known as Cissy, who roamed Britain in their caravan.
      John recalled: “Back then every pub you went to used to say, ‘No dogs and no travellers’.
      “People looking at you and being derogatory was how it was. You know, ‘The gypsies are in town, lock up your kids, lock up your ­belongings’.
      “But my family treated people with respect and we expected it back.
      “We were clean and tidy, we never abused people’s property.
      “But everyone was stigmatised as thieves and vagabonds.
      “Over the years we’ve had to ­integrate and learn the settled ­people’s ways.”
      According to John it was tough-as-nails Cissy — a “natural southpaw” (left-handed boxer) — who gave the family their boxing abilities.
      John didn’t get much regular schooling due to deep-rooted prejudice against travellers.
      In the same gravelly tones as Tyson, John, 59, told me: “If a gypsy went to school in the early Seventies, you weren’t going to learn anything because you got battered from pillar to post.
      “You were more worried about ­getting a good hiding than learning stuff, so we never bothered.
      Good hiding
      “My dad said, ‘Learn to get your living’. So we went out with my mother and father, working.”
      That meant hawking — selling — carpets door-to-door or surfacing roads.
      Dad-of-six John recalled: “I hawked at my first house when I was about seven years old.
      “If you opened the door to John Fury when he was a kid, I hope you had half an hour to spare.
      “‘No’ was often the answer but I had to talk them into saying ‘yes’ to help put food on our table.
      “Half the time they bought carpets off me just to get rid of me.”
      Very much his mother’s son, the young John was as adept with his fists as he was with the sales patter.
      He said: “Fighting has always been in our family — it’s our second nature.
      “I was big for my age and people my age wanted to fight me.
      “I would beat them up and then they’d go and get their big brother.
      “It was a free-for-all. You either damage me or I damage you. It was dog eat dog.
      “I probably got more hidings than anyone alive. It’s turned me into the person I am today.”
      John is the son of Irish traveller Hughie and English Romany gypsy Patience who roamed Britain in their caravanCredit: MacMillan
      When John was 15 he fought a dad in his thirties who had called him a “gyppo” after John brawled with his son.
      As the bearded man came towards him demanding a fight, John hit him “with a left and a right”.
      He recalled: “He went straight down and I kicked him full in the face with the instep of my hobnail boots.”
      Eventually John ended up in a ­Nottinghamshire borstal, which he likens to the grim 1979 film Scum, starring Ray Winstone.
      There he confronted two bullies, punching one “weasel” so hard “that his nose shattered”.
      Afraid his sentence would be increased, John jumped from a third-storey window to escape.
      On the run for three years, he met traveller Amber, who became his wife and had a son, John Boy, when John was just 18.
      Then he was arrested and sent to a young offenders’ unit to finish his sentence.
      In 1988 his son Tyson Luke Fury arrived three months premature, weighing just 1lb.
      John said: “I could hold him in the palm of my hand. He had to be a fighter to survive.”
      John and Amber had two other sons, Shane and Hughie. In 1997 daughter Ramona was born but died after just four days.
      When the couple split, John found love again with second wife Chantal and became a dad to two more boys, Roman, and boxer and Love Island star Tommy.
      John recalled: ‘Back then every pub you went to used to say, ‘No dogs and no travellers’Credit: PUBLISHER
      John with his father, mother and uncleCredit: MacMillan
      With cash short, John — a seasoned street fighter — decided to try boxing professionally.
      He entered a ­promoter’s gym for an audition wearing hobnail boots and jeans, and recalled: “They looked at me funny but it was all about money for me to feed my family.
      “Fighting professionally for a few hundred pounds on a Saturday night was easy money for me.
      “Meanwhile I was trading scrap metal, doing some roofing, tarmacking and still hawking carpets.”
      John was also carrying on a family tradition of bare-knuckle boxing.
      The 6ft 3in bruiser, who later helped guide Tyson as he made his way in the conventional game, said his tactics were to “throw a lot of punches” and “get the job done as soon as possible”.
      His professional record included four losses, but with bare knuckles he was unbeaten, adding: “I was ­prepared to fight anyone, anywhere, any time.”
      John bought a farm at Styal, in Cheshire, when he was 26 and the settled life gave Tyson a formal education his father was denied.
      The future champion went to the local primary school, where John remembers he was “huge” compared to the other boys in his class.
      Tyson began boxing aged 11 and took to it “like a duck to water”.
      By the time he was 15 he was already 6ft 5in and finding sparring partners difficult to come by.
      John would drive him as far afield as Huddersfield and Leicester looking for suitable fighters who could cope with his son’s explosive power.
      ‘Prison didn’t bother me’
      When John was 30 he embarked on a five-year stint as an “enforcer” — which meant people who were owed a debt or were being bullied could call him and he would “sort it out in my own way for a fee”.
      In 2011, John was jailed for 11 years after gouging out fellow ­traveller Oathie Sykes’s eye following a 12-year feud.
      John said: “It was two gypsy ­people, proud people, so someone’s going to get hurt.
      “I never intended to hurt him like that but, when you are fighting where anything goes, it can happen.
      “If it had happened to me I’d have moved on and not got the police involved because I’m a true-bred, fighting, travelling man.
      “Other people don’t think like me but that’s in the past and I’ve moved on from it.”
      He added: “Prison didn’t bother me. I’m a big believer in Jesus Christ and thought, ‘If this is my destiny, I’ll come out a better man’.
      “I abided by the rules, didn’t talk back to anybody and kept myself very fit. I salute the prison officers.
      “When I finally left prison after serving five years, I took the warders some boxing gloves signed by Tyson. They were very good to me.”
      Now John avoids big gatherings in case his violent temper should get him into trouble again.
      Months after his release in 2015, he was ringside to witness Tyson become world champion after ­beating Wladimir Klitschko.
      With his gift of the gab from hawking carpets, John was TV gold at weigh-ins and press conferences.
      And he was soon a star turn on reality shows including ITV’s Tyson Fury: The Gypsy King series and Netflix’s At Home With The Furys.
      But, like Tyson, John suffers from mental health issues.
      He admits: “Even after everything Tyson has achieved, I can get up in the morning and think, ‘What a waste of time, nothing is worth anything’.
      “The only thing you get in your head is negative stuff.
      “I try and put it to one side and be positive about everything and say, ‘OK mental health, I ain’t playing today.
      “If I’m feeling not too clever I find some nice, bubbly person to talk to. They can make you feel so much better.”
      Yet the red mist can still descend for John.
      At son Tommy’s final press conference before fighting KSI last Saturday, a sweary John punched and headbutted a Perspex panel dividing the two fighters.
      He said: “It’s not pantomime, it’s the real me. If you upset me, I’m going to have a go back.
      Read More on The Sun
      “On my gravestone I’d like them to put, ‘John Fury, a man of extremes’. I may be a fighter but the best of me is as a father.”

      When Fury Takes Over, by John Fury (Macmillan, £22), is out on Thursday.
      Tomorrow: Exclusive extracts – why gangland boss put a contract out to kill me.

      Like Tyson, John suffers from mental health issues.Credit: MacMillan
      John exchanges words with champ Deontay Wilder during a weigh-inCredit: Sportsfile – Subscription
      When Fury Takes Over, by John Fury (Macmillan, £22), is out on ThursdayCredit: MacMillan More

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      in Soccer

      How Sir Bobby Charlton rose from the ashes of Munich disaster to become player ‘better than Pele’

      by

      THE scene at the German airport that bitter February afternoon in 1958 was one of utter devastation.Pulled free from the twisted wreckage of the Munich air disaster, Sir Bobby ­Charlton rose to become one of the finest footballers England — and the world — has ever known.
      Sir Bobby Charlton survived the Munich air disaster and went on to win the World Cup for EnglandCredit: Allsport – Getty
      But for the rest of his life he would be haunted by the tragedy that left eight of his Manchester United teammates dead, including England legend Duncan Edwards.
      Sir Bobby said: “All my mates — I think about this fact every day of my life.”
      Over the next decade, he reached peaks of achievement no other domestic player has reached.
      An exceptionally gifted midfielder with a thunderbolt shot, he was the leading scorer for both United and England for more than 40 years until being overtaken by Wayne Rooney.
      READ MORE SIR BOBBY CHARLTON
      Partly because of the trauma of Munich, his character has been described as modest and reserved.
      Flamboyant former Manchester United boss Ron Atkinson once called him a “grizzlin’ old miser” — but on the field Charlton oozed a unique charisma.
      Renowned football correspondent Geoffrey Green summed up his brilliance in 1969, writing: “It is the explosive facets of his play that will remain in the memory.
      “His thinning, fair hair streaming in the wind, he has moved like a ship in full sail.
      Most read in Football
      “He has always possessed an elemental quality, jinking, changing feet and direction, turning gracefully on the ball or accelerating through a gap surrendered by a confused enemy.”
      In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Charlton was an enigma — unable to fulfil his talent consistently.
      But all that changed when he was switched from left winger to the role of attacking central midfielder for club and country.
      The national team was now under the management of Alf Ramsey, whose pioneering approach abandoned the use of traditional wingers.
      With more scope to dominate, Charlton flourished. In 1963, he said: “I’m in the game all the time. I could not be happier.”
      Sir Bobby Charlton led Manchester United to become the first English team to win the European CupCredit: Getty – Contributor
      He became the fulcrum of United’s forward line as the revived club won a host of trophies, including an FA Cup, three league titles, and, above all, the European Cup in 1968 — exactly a decade after Munich.
      Charlton was just as vital to Alf Ramsey’s world-beating England side of 1966.
      Squad member Jimmy Armfield said: “We had a trump card — every great team has one and ours was Bobby Charlton.”
      His typically spectacular long-range goal against Mexico kick-started England’s campaign, and his brace against Portugal saw England through to the final.
      Full-back George Cohen recalled: “He had that great acceleration and beautiful balance that gives great players half a chance at goal where there isn’t one.”
      It was a reflection of Charlton’s stature that in the 1966 final, the German maestro Franz Beckenbauer was instructed to sacrifice his own freedom to mark him, though that did not prevent an England triumph.
      Beckenbauer said: “I have more admiration for Charlton than any other player, even Pele.”
      Franz Beckenbauer famously said Sir Bobby Charlton was better than Brazilan great PeleCredit: Keystone
      Central to the admiration Charlton provoked was his supreme professionalism.
      Unlike his United team-mate George Best, who squandered his talent through alcoholic self-indulgence, Charlton was a role model in the way he conducted himself, never flinched from the fight and gave wholeheartedly to every team he represented.
      Even his signature comb-over — for which he was ribbed by some — was a mark of an unflashy man brought up in a Northumberland mining town.
      He appeared in more than 750 matches yet was only booked twice.
      Irish legend Johnny Giles, who began his career at United, said: “He always tried his hardest, no matter what the circumstances.
      “He would never hide on the field, even when he was not playing well. I never saw him give anything but his best.”
      His decency extended to his personal life, built on his happy marriage to Norma Ball, who was a receptionist in a fashion agency before she met Bobby in 1959.
      They had two daughters — Andrea and Suzanne, who went on to become a weather presenter for the BBC.
      There was never the slightest whiff of scandal about Sir Bobby.
      He was too restrained, too self-conscious ever to have been a playboy, and a secure domestic life as both loyal husband and devoted father suited him perfectly.
      Sir Bobby earned more than 100 caps for England and scored 49 goals for his countryCredit: Getty
      Ronnie Cope, who played 93 games for United with Charlton, remembered: “I have always said that marrying Norma was the best thing that ever happened to Bobby.
      “She was a smashing girl, very attractive and seemed to have an influence on him straight away.”
      But the advent of Norma into his life also caused a rift in his family, particularly with elder brother Jack and his mother Cissie — who came from the famous north-eastern Milburn footballing family and was very much the matriarch of the Charlton household in Ashington.
      Outspoken, domineering but warm, Cissie was similar in character to Jack, whereas Bobby took after his quiet father, Robert, a miner who worked down the local pit and was more interested in boxing than football.
      It was a tough life, and Jack and Bobby grew up in a small terraced house where they had to share a bed and use an outside toilet. They also shared an ability at football.
      From his earliest years in Ashington, Bobby had seemed destined for greatness, as his neighbour Walter Lavery recalled: “He stood out like a beacon.
      “He was different, far above the rest of the young players, as near a genius as you could get.”
      But Jack, while more limited, was still sufficiently effective as a defender to attract the interest of league clubs.
      Despite their differences, the pair did embrace when they won the 1966 World Cup.Credit: Getty
      He joined Leeds United at the age of 15, a year before Bobby signed for Manchester United.
      Despite embarking on the same career path, the two brothers were never close.
      Indeed, the differences between them were far greater than the similarities.
      Uninterested in academic work, Jack went to a secondary modern school, Bobby, more diligent, to a grammar.
      Jack was a rebel, always challenging authority, while Bobby was a conformist. Jack was a voluble Labour supporter, whereas Bobby was essentially conservative in outlook.
      Against this backdrop, Bobby’s marriage to Norma dramatically widened the chasm between the brothers. Norma and Cissie could not abide each other.
      Norma once said: “I was never accepted into the family by my mother-in-law. She has never acknowledged me or my children.”
      In her turn, Cissie admitted as much: “We got off to a bad start. I think we rubbed each other up the wrong way.”
      Inevitably, Bobby took Norma’s side, and Jack his mother’s.
      The result was that they were barely on speaking terms for much of their later lives.
      In the playing arena, there was an air of anti-climax for Bobby after 1968.
      United went into decline following the retirement of manager Sir Matt Busby, while Bobby’s England career ended on a sour note when he was substituted in the 1970 World Cup quarter-final defeat by West Germany in Mexico.
      On his departure from United in 1973, he had a spell as manager of Preston North End.
      But his habitual reserve and inability to connect with players much less skilful than him meant he was never cut out for such a role. He left after two seasons.
      More fulfilling were stints as an international ambassador for the FA — where he was the architect of a network of international youth coaching schemes, of which David Beckham was one product.
      As a director of Manchester United from 1984, he played a vital part in the success of Sir Alex Ferguson’s managerial career at Old Trafford.
      Bobby himself was knighted in 1994. No one was ever more deserving of the honour.
      Read More on The Sun
      And it was his elder brother Jack who presented him with a BBC Sports Personality of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.
      Jack told his sibling: “Bobby Charlton is the greatest player I’ve ever seen. And he’s my brother.”
      In later years, the Charlton brothers rekindled their relationshipCredit: Getty More

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      in Soccer

      Meet Brit battling to set up world’s last national footy team in country where locals play barefoot & pitch is landfill

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      IN concrete basketball courts on tiny islands in the Pacific Ocean, bare-footed footballers dream of representing their country.Yet few other aspiring soccer stars have so much standing in their way as those on the Marshall Islands.
      The Marshall Islands is the last country without a national football teamCredit: Shutterstock
      Brit Lloyd Owers has been appointed as football technical director of the Marshall IslandsCredit: Paul Tonge
      The first problem is that it is the last country on the planet without a national team.
      Last year the nation — 1,225 islands 8,000 miles from Britain, some sitting atop submerged volcanoes — didn’t even have an amateur league.
      There are no football grounds and in the US-dominated culture there has been little interest in the beautiful game.
      But that is all changing in the country most famous for witnessing nuclear weapon tests on its Bikini atoll in the Forties and Fifties.
      READ MORE FOOTBALL NEWS
      Three Brits are part of the Marshall Islands Soccer Federation, which is aiming to become a member of football’s governing body Fifa and to take part in World Cup qualifiers.
      They include football coach Lloyd Owers, who led the first training sessions on the islands this summer.
      The Marshall Islands will next year have a stadium with a proper pitch and in the summer intend to field a side against neighbouring islands.
      ‘Playing barefooted’
      They already have a football strip, which has been selling more than 100 replicas a week since it went on sale last month, even though there is not yet a team to cheer on.
      Most read in Football
      Lloyd, 34, from Oxfordshire, whose previous jobs include working as a scout for League Two Mansfield Town FC and under 23’s manager at non-league Oxford City, tells The Sun: “When we started in January there was nothing. There were no leagues, no kids sessions, no anything.
      “We want to be confederation members, we want to be part of the international stage qualifiers, Olympic qualifiers.
      “Long term, we want to be Fifa members, World Cup qualifiers, that’s genuinely something we want to do.”
      In many ways, it is surprising that the Marshall Islands, which has a population of 42,000, doesn’t have a national side.
      There are plenty of smaller coun- tries with one.
      The Marshall Islands football strip has been selling more than 100 replicas a week since it went on sale last monthCredit: Marshall Islands Soccer Federation
      Even the neighbouring commonwealth Tuvalu islands, with just 12,000 people, has a team affiliated to the Oceania Football Con- federation, which has 11 members af- filiated with Fifa, including New Zealand.
      And despite having only 760 citizens, Vatican City in Italy has managed to field a team for international friendlies.
      The Marshall Islands, which are named after the British explorer John Marshall, who visited the long-discovered islands in 1788, was fought over by several nations before gaining independence from the US in 1986.
      But America still has a military base on Kwajalein Atoll, with around a thousand personnel, and has a big influence on the isolated nation.
      As a result, basketball and baseball are the most popular sports.
      That, though, has changed since football superstars such as David Beckham and Lionel Messi raised the profile of the game stateside.
      When the son of oil worker Shem Livai, who lives in the capital Majuro, became a fan, the idea of a national side took root.
      Shem formed the federation in early 2020, became its president and, once the Covid pandemic was over, set about kicking off the team’s development.
      Lloyd, whose coaching consultancy work has taken him to the US, Canada and Sweden, wrote a blog which Shem read.
      The pair got into a conversation over the internet “quite randomly”, according to Lloyd, and he found himself taking up the part-time job of technical director for the fledgling football federation.
      By the start of this year Lloyd and his fellow Brits, communications director Justin Whalley and commercial director Matt Webb, set about raising sponsorship and the project’s profile.
      That included a competition in April to design the nation’s football shirt. “When the sales started rolling in, you realised how popular the project is. We sold 400 in three weeks in 40 different countries,” he says. In the summer Lloyd flew to the Marshall Islands for his first coaching sessions.
      It is a 46-hour journey — if there are no delays.
      Lloyd’s connecting flight from Hawaii to the islands was cancelled and he had to wait two days for the next one, although he admits that being stranded in Honolulu was no hardship.
      They are very tough
      When he got there he realised the scale of the task.
      He reveals: “It is an eye-opener, they are playing barefooted.”
      Locals would enjoy a kickabout wherever there was space, which was mainly on basketball courts.
      Lloyd developed a football programme for schoolsCredit: SUPPLIED
      The Marshall Islands has a population of around 40,000 peopleCredit: rmisoccer/instagram
      Lloyd set about organising a league, which now consists of four futsal teams.
      Futsal is a five-a-side game which can be played in smaller spaces and is good for developing skills.
      He continues: “The men’s futsal league takes place on concrete, the majority are still playing barefooted, they are very tough.”
      Lloyd developed a programme for schools and the government has agreed to include football in PE lessons. He also taught 23 locals how to coach the game.
      Playing the traditional 11-a-side game remains a challenge.
      Lloyd explains: “One of the battles is a lack of space. The main island of Majuro is literally a 24-mile drive from one end to the other, one long road with buildings either side and you are surrounded by water.”
      Climate change is only going to make that problem worse. The highest point on Majuro is only ten feet above sea level, and scientists have warned that the oceans could rise by six feet by the end of this century in a worst-case scenario.
      Lloyd says: “It is a real battle. When I visited, I went to one of the ends of the islands and that’s where it is going to be at threat.
      “There is talk that by 2030 that whole area could be submerged.”
      For this reason the country’s first stadium is being built on reclaimed land. The multi-purpose complex, which includes a track and field for athletics and a football pitch, is due to open in July next year.
      “The football stadium used to be part of the ocean, but they have built it in landfill, similar to what they did in Dubai,” explains Lloyd.
      On top of shrinking land, the nation also suffers from a shrinking population, with the Marshallese heading to Australia, New Zealand and the United States to find work.
      Tech billionaire Elon Musk used Kwajalein Atoll for his early SpaceX rocket launches.
      But the logistics of getting supplies to the remote eight-acre Omelek island proved to be so tricky that the staff reportedly mutinied in 2005 when they ran out of food.
      These days SpaceX operates in Texas.
      Fortunately, a free movement agreement with the US means there is a potential pool of players among expats.
      There are an estimated 30,000 Marshall Islanders in the US, with half of them in the state of Arkansas.
      Lloyd says: “We have had a few players contact us that play in the US college system, for example. They will be part of the plans over the next few years.”
      The main aim, though, is to develop a grassroots game on the islands themselves so the team has players with sand between their toes.
      The federation will need to show there is an established, competitive league to apply to membership of either the Oceania Football Confederation or Fifa.
      Lloyd says: “You need football to be regular, you need it to be benefiting every group possible, regular competition.”
      Read More on The Sun
      What gives him so much hope is the way the islanders pull together.
      He concludes: “It is very much a together community feel, everyone helps everyone. I have never been to a place which is so hospitable.”
      Progress is being made on the Marshall Islands’ new stadiumCredit: rmisoccer/instagram
      The Marshall Islands is a small South Pacific Island nationCredit: Shutterstock
      The Marshall Islands and Bikini Atoll on a map
      Nearby Bikini Atoll is known for being the site of breakthrough Atom bomb testsCredit: Getty More

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      in Soccer

      Football should be the beautiful game – but 2030 World Cup covering half the globe is an ugly kick in the teeth for fans

      by

      FOOTBALL is supposed to be the people’s game.It’s supposed to be about the fans as well as the players.
      Nobody outside a chosen few inside Fifa headquarters in Zurich was celebrating the latest brainwave pulled off by world football boss Gianni InfantinoCredit: PA
      Lionel Messi lifts the World Cup trophy in Qatar – a tournament allegedly powered by giant solar fields in the desert that NOBODY has ever seenCredit: Getty
      And the World Cup, the pinnacle of the sport, is supposed to be a global party.
      But nobody outside a chosen few inside Fifa headquarters in Zurich was celebrating the latest brainwave pulled off by world football boss Gianni Infantino.
      A World Cup covering half the globe, spread over 39 days and involving 48 teams and 104 matches.
      Starting with three games in South America, before the rest of the tournament is split between the Iberian peninsula and North Africa.

      Yet what was inconceivable is now, overnight, a looming reality, coming our way in just seven years, in 2030.
      A kick in the teeth for fans around the planet, who still love the beautiful game, no matter how ugly it can seem.
      And further irrefutable proof that what counts in football now is not the sport, the emotion and the passion.
      That went out of the window long ago.
      Most read in Football
      The brutal truth is that it is now only about the money, the politics, the deals and the TV contracts.
      Who in their right mind would conceive of sending fans halfway around the world — then back — for ONE match?
      Fifa, of course.
      The blazers in their ivory towers, who know they get executive travel, first-class seats and the biggest suites in the swankiest hotels, all meals and match tickets included, for nothing — plus £400 a day in cash for spending money just to keep them sweet.
      No worries about saving up for the journey for these men and women.
      The same Fifa that trumpeted the green credentials of a £185BILLION World Cup in Qatar, allegedly powered by giant solar fields in the desert that NOBODY has ever seen.
      That’s before you even get into the other issues in the Gulf state — the treatment of migrant workers and legalised homophobia.
      Yet it’s as much about the sheer cost of the concept as well.
      Playing the opening three matches in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay pays homage to the centenary of the tournament that was first played in Uruguayan capital Montevideo in 1930.
      Divide and rule
      There is a romantic element in that — although many real fans of the game will argue that the 2030 tournament should have been hosted entirely back where it all began.
      But Fifa is asking some fans to fork out thousands to fly 6,000-plus miles to see their team in action in South America and then back across the Atlantic for a tournament split between Morocco, Portugal and Spain.
      Where, of course, tickets will be at premium rates for travelling fans. Someone has to pay the bills. And it’s you.
      Does anybody in Zurich care about that? It doesn’t look that way, does it?
      For Fifa President Infantino, football’s version of The Hood from Thunderbirds, it is an ingenious, some would argue brilliant, solution.
      After all, he has handed six countries and three continents a piece of the action.
      That allows all the potential bidders to keep face at home and also ensures the maximum interest and pay cheques from the European TV companies who fund his global projects, pitches and training centres in countries that otherwise would not be able to afford them.
      Infantino may not have been a protege of former Fifa chief, disgraced Sepp Blatter.
      But he has learned from the Blatter play book of divide and rule — and brought it into the modern age.
      And seasoned, and cynical, Fifa watchers know what the real end game is here.
      It is less about 2030 — although that is what has captured immediate attention.
      Instead, it is more, far more, about 2034 — and giving Saudi Arabia and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman what HE has craved for years.

      The door for the Saudis to walk through and host that tournament is not ajar. It is wide open.
      Nominally, Australia could bid as well.
      But it would be a forlorn and expensive waste of money. The die is cast.
      “All the fish is sold,” as they say in Fifa land.
      It does not matter that there will be another desert storm of protest, that fans will not be able to get a drink — to be fair, the absence of booze in the stadiums in Qatar made for a far less aggressive and hostile atmosphere.
      Nor that the Saudi record on human rights is pretty compatible with that in Qatar.
      Indeed, the Qataris do not, as far as we know, have a track record of dismembering critical journalists in any of their embassies.
      Doha 1, Riyadh 0.
      Effectively gifting Saudi the tournament means another winter World Cup in November and December of 2034 — and another enforced six-week break for the Premier League.
      And because the new 32-team Club World Cup — Chelsea, Manchester City and almost certainly Liverpool play in the first version in the USA in 2025 — is held in the same country as the next World Cup, the situation will be similar 12 months earlier, with players going to Saudi in 2033.
      Scant consolation
      Two successive European club seasons ruptured in half, just to ensure MBS gets what he wants.
      Have the fans, players or even the clubs been asked about that? Of course they haven’t. They never are.
      The good news, the only good news, is that Infantino will not be around to bask in the reflected “glory” of his masterplan when it comes to fruition.
      Even after dismissing his first three years in the job as not counting, he must give up his place as Fifa President in 2031.
      Canada’s Victor Montagliani is a potential successor.
      But that will be scant consolation to the fans forking out money they really can’t afford to follow their teams in 2030 or four years later.
      They are barely an afterthought.
      Scenery for the TV pictures.
      Read More on The Sun
      Willing victims who pay for the privilege.
      As Sir Alex Ferguson once said, in very different circumstances: “Football. Bloody hell.” More

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      in Soccer

      The Sun launches Footie For All Fund to help protect kids’ clubs hit by the cost-of-living crisis

      by

      THE Sun is today launching a landmark Footie For All Fund to help protect kids’ clubs hit hard by the cost-of-living crisis.We have teamed up with Tesco’s Stronger Starts programme to hand out £150,000 worth of grants to grass roots youth football clubs struggling with funds.
      The Sun is launching our landmark Footie For All Fund to help protect kids’ clubs hit hard by the cost-of-living crisisCredit: Oliver Dixon
      Harry Redknapp has backed The Sun’s Footie For All FundCredit: Louis Wood
      Gary Lineker has backed The Sun’s Footie For All FundCredit: Doug Seeburg
      The cash can be used in any way that encourages more children to take up the sport or improves access to the game.
      Perhaps you are a local team that wants to offer parents help with membership fees.
      Maybe you need new kits or more pitch space to play on.
      Grants can also be used to help with transport or general running costs.
      READ MORE ON FOOTBALL
      Earlier this year we launched our Footie For All campaign to shine a light on how financial struggles were forcing kids to give up football.
      Figures showed that 94 per cent of grass roots clubs were concerned about the impact soaring costs were having on their membership, according to charity Sported.
      In the wake of our probe we have been inundated with stories of local youth sides — who make a huge difference to their communities — struggling to cover their costs.
      Clubs across the country also told us how some kids are being forced to drop out altogether as families can not pay their membership subs or for kit and transport.
      Most read in Football
      So today we urge grass roots clubs to apply for one of our fantastic £1,000 Footie For All support grants.
      Launched in conjunction with Tesco’s Stronger Starts campaign — which funds healthy food and activities for children — we will dish out 150 grants in total to clubs across the country.
      Christine Heffernan, Tesco group communications director, said: “The Tesco Stronger Starts grant programme provides £5million of funding to get more children and their families access to healthy and nutritious food and physical activities.
      “We thought that The Footie For All programme would be a great extension to that to help kids to thrive.
      “Any child should be able to do physical activity they enjoy if they wish, taking away the worry about paying for subs or kit for example.”
      Our campaign is being backed by big names in the game.
      Match Of The Day host Gary Lineker said: “I think grass roots is vital.
      “That’s where everyone starts. Some of us finish at the top, some don’t, but we all enjoy it.”
      Sun columnist Harry Redknapp added: “Grass roots football is important, and we need to ensure there are facilities for kids.”
      Reality star Joey Essex is also keen to see kids keep playing.
      He said: “Football provides an escape for so many kids from whatever else is going on. The Sun is offering families a lifeline.”
      To apply for one of our grants, see tescostrongerstarts. org.uk/footiefund.
      Grants will be awarded by The Sun with charity Groundwork, which runs Tesco’s grant-giving programmes, on a rolling basis.
      Applications must be made by October 29.
      SOMERTON TOWN
      YOUTH football club Somerton Town, Somerset, kept its membership subs frozen for three years to help families cope through Covid and the cost-of-living crisis.
      But organisers had to raise them from £95 to £120 this season after rises of up to 30 per cent in costs.
      Somerton Town kept its membership subs frozen for three years to help families cope through Covid and the cost-of-living crisisCredit: Chris Balcombe
      Since it was founded in 2001, Somerton have played a unique social role for its 187 players, across 11 teams.
      Chairman Justin Davies, 40, says: “We have a huge catchment area that contains areas with large-scale social and economic deprivation.
      “Playing football teaches young people about teamwork, respect and fair play.
      “Little things like shaking hands before and after a match to show respect to the other team is important.
      “When we put the prices up, 21 players left, with 20 not going on to join another club. It was a financial decision.”
      Justin Davis said: ‘Playing football teaches young people about teamwork, respect and fair play’Credit: Chris Balcombe
      HACKNEY WICK FC
      AFTER leaving prison in 2019, Bobby Kasanga started Hackney Wick FC, in East London, to stop other children falling into a life of crime.
      It now has more than 180 children on its books and a waiting list of even more who want to be part of its teams.
      For many families, the club is a way to keep their children on the right path – and Bobby, 37, who spent eight years inside for armed robbery, never turns anyone away.
      He says: “We try to do as much as we can to alleviate financial stress and often let kids play without paying or offer discounts if a family has multiple kids with us.
      “We’ve seen it getting worse recently, but we know turning anyone away could see them get taken in by gangs.
      “If we can’t have them, the gangs certainly will.”
      To play a year at Hackney costs around £250.
      But Bobby and his team are writing off around £5,000 of unpaid subs because they know families can’t afford it.
      He says: “We rely on our sponsors and they’ve been amazing.
      Last year, one covered the cost of 20 kids for a year. But it’s hard to keep our heads above water.”
      The club’s relationships with local businesses provide more than just financial help.
      Bobby says: “We’ve had four of our players taken on by one of our sponsors.
      “It means they have a stable income and a potential career for life.
      “That’s so important for helping them stay out of danger.
      “But even if they end up going down a bad path, the club relationships across the whole of East London may help diffuse violent situations.
      “They may stop an attack because they know the other gang member from football.”
      Bobby adds: “I never want anyone to go through what I went through growing up.
      “We are a family and I won’t take football away from them over money.”
      BLACKBURN EAGLES
      LIKE other clubs, Blackburn Eagles have also seen more kids struggling to pay – but it never turns anyone away.
      The club, which is the biggest in its area with 650 players on its books, feels it is vital for all kids to have access to the beautiful game and tries to keep its fees low.
      Blackburn Eagles feels it is vital for all kids to have access to football and tries to keep its fees lowCredit: BLACKBURN EAGLES
      In fact, the academy’s vice-chairman, Chris Hughes, 39, says prices have not been put up in around eight years.
      He adds: “We don’t turn anyone away.
      “We just take more children, create new groups, create new training sessions and create new teams.”
      But the club has recently had to take teams out of the Junior Premier League due to the cost of the four-hour round trips to play other teams across the North West.
      Chris says: “Football gives kids a good focus and can be a massive part of certain children’s lives.
      “It might be the one thing they’ll look forward to all week, and sometimes it gets them out of situations where maybe they don’t want to be at home all the time.”
      HOW TO APPLY
      WE want to hear the story of your club and the huge difference you are making to kids and your community.
      If you are a not-for-profit grassroots football club in England, Wales or Scotland working with youngsters under the age of 18 you could be eligible for one of our 150 grants.
      Funds can be used for anything that encourages more children to take part in the sport.
      Perhaps your club needs help with pitch fees or wants to sponsor funded places for children who can not afford membership.
      To apply and for full T&Cs, see tescostrongerstarts.org.uk/footiefund.

      WHAT THE STARS SAY

      A young Phil FodenCredit: Instagram @philfoden
      Phil says football ‘brings happiness for so many people’Credit: Getty
      “GRASSROOTS football is where it began for all of us.
      “It brings happiness for so many people and it’s so important nothing gets in the way of everyone having that opportunity.”

      A young Harry MaguireCredit: Instagram
      Harry says ‘playing with a team gives kids an outlet and a chance to learn discipline’Credit: Getty
      “I SPENT my childhood with a ball at my feet.
      “Playing with a team gives kids an outlet and a chance to learn discipline and to make friends with people they might not have met.”

      A young Raheem Sterling
      Raheem said that as a kid he ‘fell in love’ with football and ‘made friends for life’Credit: Getty
      “MY mentor got me in to football to correct my behaviour.
      “I found something I wanted to put my energy in to.
      “I fell in love with it – and I made friends for life.”
      READ MORE SUN STORIES

      A young Jarrod Bowen
      Jarrod said ‘football is for everyone and it’s massively important it stays that way’Credit: Getty
      “WE can’t let kids see their dream die simply because Mum or Dad can’t afford to pay for the subs, kit and travel.
      “Football is for everyone and it’s massively important it stays that way.” More