Louis Faith’s tale underlines the importance of providing a place for a kickabout

THE WEEKEND DOSSIER

A group of youngsters play on the Bransbury Park pitch in Portsmouth funded by Barclays and the Football Foundation

When he was a teenage tearaway, dabbling in drugs, messing about at school and, as he puts it, “beating people up for fun” the idea of Louis Faith giving a speech in the Houses of Parliament would have seemed inconceivable to himself and those who knew him.

Yet on Wednesday the 22-year-old held one of the venerable buildings’ most elegant rooms spellbound as he described how football had been his way out of a life of petty crime.

Faith was on the scrapheap at 16 – one of life’s Neets, as those “not in education, employment or training” are labelled. Rejected for college due, he said, to his “track record” at school he found salvation with Portsmouth’s football in the community scheme. But as successful as the programme is, Faith also needed a place to thrive. That was a purpose-built multi-sports facility at Bransbury Park, in the city’s south-east.

Faith described how one day, towards the end of his 12th summer – spent primarily at the local beach – he and his mates came back to their usual park. “We were like, ‘woah, where’s this come from?’ There was a hub for sport: tennis courts, a basketball court and, the bit that most interested us, an Astroturf football pitch. It was open access, and it was in our park, so we spent hours there, playing football, getting exercise.”

The site was also used by Portsmouth’s community scheme to engage boys like Faith. Prompted by his girlfriend and teachers, Faith was beginning to question the direction his life was taking. Portsmouth offered an alternative and he began volunteering at Bransbury Park, helping with coaching. This was so at odds with his school behaviour that a member of the scheme had to visit his headmaster to assure them that, when Faith asked permission to leave school early to help set up sessions, he was telling the truth and not just finding an excuse to bunk off.

When college turned Faith down he turned to Portsmouth, who gave him an apprenticeship. He has since racked up qualifications, most of them acquired at the park, and is employed by Pompey in the Community as a sports youth worker trying to persuade others to follow his example.

The development at Bransbury Park was created through an award-winning partnership between Barclays and the Football Foundation called Spaces for Sport. On Wednesday an eclectic gathering of footballers, managers, bankers, policy wonks and community volunteers gathered in the House of Lords’ Cholmondeley Room to celebrate the scheme passing the 200-site mark. It was an appropriate venue. Hours before, in the Commons, George Osborne delivered an Autumn Statement that made the work even more vital.

Such were the fears over funding, the prevailing feeling in the room was “it could have been worse”. But, while the Chancellor of the Exchequer gained some favourable headlines with his pledge to continue funding Britain’s Olympians, the less glamourous grassroots was once again left short. Especially damaging is another cut in local government income.

There are lots of things councils do which are mandatory, and understandably so as they include duties such as ensuring children are protected and families are housed. However, this means when money is tight the discretionary responsibilties take the pain: facilities such as parks, swimming pools and sports fields.

One of these is Faith’s Astroturf of dreams. “We have noticed a dip in numbers and believe a lot of that is due to the quality of the playing surface,” he said. “It is supposed to be maintained by Portsmouth City Council but it is not happening.” In the council’s defence some maintenance has been provided, but not swiftly and drainage has been a particular problem.

When it comes to social provision Britain, as in many things, falls between the examples of Continental Europe and the United States. In Western Europe taxes are higher and the state provides excellent facilities. In the US taxes are low but there is an established tradition of philanthropy, and not just the likes of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Jeff Kinney, author of the Wimpy Kid series, has paid for a sports pitch at his community’s local school.


 Louis Faith, the sports youth worker for Pompey in the Community

Here, increasingly, we need companies like Barclays to fill the gap. The scheme, which predates the financial crash and mood swing against banks, was set up as a by-product of the Premier League sponsorship.

Gary Hoffman, now chairman of the foundation, but then a big wheel at Barclays, explained: “We wanted to find a way to give something back as part of the sponsorship, not just throw money at the Premier League to promote our brand and put cash in players’ pockets, but to make a difference in the communities.”

Barclays has invested £59m in the scheme over 11 years. This is very small change for a company that made £3.1bn in the first six months of this year, but it is big money for the recipients. As important as the cash has been the provision of staff and expertise. As with all projects overseen by the Football Foundation, which has become a very lean, highly efficient delivery body, the aim is for the sites to be sustainable, often self-funding.

The 204 facilities are used by nearly 90,000 every week and impact even on non-users with, for example, anti-social behaviour down 26 per cent around the Bransbury Park site.

More are needed of course, many more. Maybe Barclays can dig deeper, maybe other companies can get involved. There are tax breaks after all and, as was clear from the bank’s employees at the event, charitable behavior raises a staff pride. But the bottom line, if Britain is to move towards a more philanthropic society, is for companies to look beyond the bottom line. Hoffman added: “You have to have people at the top who believe fundamentally that the role of the company is not just to make money.”