Case study - Football and Friendship

Football and Friendship 

On Monday 14 August 2023 a football match was played at Stratford Park Leisure Centre in Stroud. That’s not exceptional, and Stratford Park hosts many such informal matches. But the story behind this match is a bit different.    

The story starts with the reopening of a former hotel in the Stroud district as asylum seeker accommodation. The accommodation was occupied by up to 96 single men who were asylum seekers from across the world. 

One of those men was a former professional footballer; this footballer did the inevitable and started informal kickabouts in the carpark of the hotel, helping the physical and mental health of his fellow hotel residents by doing so.

And then the community around them did something magical. 

A health worker visiting the hotel noticed that some of the men were playing barefoot, some in flipflops, and put a call out to colleagues across the councils for unwanted trainers and football boots. Others in the community thought that the men might need a better playing surface than a car park and arranged for them to access local school paying pitches after hours. From all this came the idea that there could be a Council Officer V Asylum Seeker football match, a kickabout for just for fun.  

It was organised by Stroud District Council, supported by Forest Green Rovers, and followed by tea, cake and trophies at the Museum in the Park. 

No-one remembers the final score. But we all remember the laughter, sunshine, and the recognition that the things that join us as human beings can be stronger than the things that divide us.