City of London Football Club players – and their parents – send out a ‘hands off our pitches’ message

THE strength of feeling of hundreds of families rang out loud and clear yesterday (Thursday) as a group of young footballers and their parents gathered to tell the council: Hands off our football pitches!

More than 50 boys and their families turned out at the Finsbury Leisure Centre pitches in Norman Street to show how much it means to them to be a part of local football club City of London – and to save their pitches from being turned into a mixture of social homes and ­luxury flats.

Football coach and parent Eamon Gately, 42, said the council’s proposals to move the pitches to the roof when the leisure centre is built would effectively spell the end for the club.

He said: “There’s nothing like this in this area, we’re the only local football team around here. I’ve been to schools – Prior Weston have a football pitch on their roof – but we’re not even allowed to use it because people living in the Barbican complained about the noise.

“Everyone talks about knife crime but what do you want the kids to do?

“The kids all come from different schools and here they all get to know each other and it stops all that nonsense. This fight is about the football club and what we leave behind.

“If you develop something it should be for the kids, not for the money – you’re building flats everywhere but there’s no infrastructure for these kids.”

The club trains more than 200 children and is sponsored by popular local restaurant Fish Central. It has nine teams taking part in tournaments across Islington and Camden, and runs five sessions a week for children aged between six and 15.

The footballers are worried: they have been told the new pitches will be smaller and only cater for five-a-side teams. Currently they play up to nine-a-side.

Islington told the Tribune they would “ensure” the new pitches “work as well as possible” for the club.

City of London FC trains more than 200 children at Finsbury Leisure Centre

Mr Gately, from Lever Street, said when he and two others took over running the club two years ago they immediately reduced the fees to allow more children to take part, while some children pay nothing. They also provide free transport to tournaments and affordable second-hand kits for those who may struggle to pay.

Trevor Hankins, who has helped out with training at the club, said: “This is very important to the community. Bunhill is the most developed ward in Islington, which could quite easily make it the most developed ward in London, which could be the most developed ward in the country. They’re taking away space from the youths and they’re going to build property after property after property. That will mean more youths.”

He also called for young people to have a place to play during the redevelopment and insisted the community needed to be involved through a public meeting.

Emma Keast’s son Francis, 11, has played for City of London FC since he was six.

She said: “The council are decimating the community. We live in an area with tower blocks and estates full of children and none of these have access to outside space and our parks are not safe any more.

“The City of London play a really large role in the community. So many children have the opportunity to play football but it’s not just about football, it’s about them coming together forming friendships and the parents as well and all of these things are about enriching the community.”

She said putting pitches on the roof of the leisure centre would ruin the community atmosphere where children can turn up after school and play for free if the pitches are not booked. I’m pretty sure rooftop pitches, they will charge for it, but also it’s looming towards that exclusivity thing – and you’d need to be a member.”

Currently the players’s homes overlook the pitches adding to a sense of community and security for the boys.

Under Islington’s proposals, the centre would be demolished and replaced with a new facility including sports pitches and tennis courts alongside 180 new homes. Fifty per cent of those new homes will be private, to help fund the 50 per cent that are social rent property.

A press officer said: “The Finsbury Leisure Centre redevelopment will provide improved leisure facilities, a new medical centre and improved public spaces.

“As well as delivering a better experience for visitors to the leisure centre, the development will provide much-needed new homes for council tenants. Council homes change lives – we need them more than ever in the midst of a housing crisis and a cost-of-living emergency.

“Local people are at the heart of everything we do, and we’re listening carefully to what they are telling us. We want to ensure that the new football pitches work as well as possible for local teams and users, and are committed to working with them and listening to their feedback.”