By Myles Palmer
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LAST NIGHT was good fun.
A launch party for Street League – Kennington Boy, a new documentary about football teams for homeless people, refugees and asylum seekers. The party is at 6 p.m. at Sport England’s groovy new offices at Victoria House, Bloomsbury Square, where the heart of a large listed building has been ripped out and replaced by a spectacular atrium.
It’s Wednesday night and it’s : have a drink, some canapes, see the film, chat with Street League patron Gilberto Silva, with Jennie Harland-Khan from the league, with a few hacks, with some girls, meet Darren, the star of the film, then roll out and homeward just after nine.
It’s gruelling work, but somebody has to do it.
DARREN Fazackerley grew up on a council estate in South London and smoked dope, took crack, smack, valium and nicked wheels off cars.
Then, as his addiction got worse, he stole cars, which was “like another addiction.”
His father was away in the Royal Navy and when Dad came home his hair fell out with the stress of having the police round at 4 a.m. looking for a young junkie. Mum’s worked suffered and his sister didn’t get enough attention.
Darren’s life was a nightmare.
But things picked up when he went from rehab to playing 5-a-side football in a scheme started in 2001 by a doctor, Damian Hatton, and Colin Watson, a former soldier who was sleeping rough in London.
Street League has seven full-time staff and two divisions in London, 10 teams in each, with promotion and relegation.
They have over 500 players training weekly and their year is organised into two seasons : February to September and September to February.
The squads are changing all the time as many players move into employment, training and full-time education. One player, Paul McCarthy from Phoenix House, the same rehab project as Darren, is now doing a B.A. in philosophy and psychology at Birkbeck. Another, Dave Robinson, has become a plumber.
There are also leagues in Leicester and Glasgow, and Darren had a trial with 150 other players for the representative team.
He got into a 16-man England squad who went on a tour of Brazil, where the slums made the players realise how lucky they were in London.
They saw the sights, dug the music, loved the people, met Pele, played some matches and lost one game 10-0, and went for a weekend in Gilberto’s home town, Lagoa da Prata, where the local hero laid on exclusive use of a swimming pool, plus barbecues and a disco.
Last July, Darren also played for England in the World Cup for the Homeless in Graz, Austria.
The documentary is directed by Paul Handley, who thinks the humanist tradition of British film-making has been neglected.
His film tells a remarkable story in compelling detail, covering an 18-month period.
Jack Eatherley of Street League says, “It was just so lucky that we were able to put on the tour. Everybody that went on the Brazil tour has been a success story, without exception. I saw a big transformation in all of them, really. It’s a bit like going on holiday, you come back all energised, you want do something. Many of them hadn’t been out of the country, or even out of London.”
Darren, now a coach with Street League, has made a long journey in a short time. The distance from where he was to where he is now is huge.
A normal lad, bubbly and personable, he is now trusted by his sister to take his little nephew out to play in the park.
Genuinely grateful for the help he’s had in turning his life round, he admits Brazil was a big eye-opener.
He told me, “The people are so friendly over there, it’s amazing. But over there all the help most people will get is a glass of milk and a slice of bread.”
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If you want to play, coach, get involved, check out
www.streetleague.co.uk
MORE SOON about my chat with the big man.
Gilberto is a real gentleman, a nice guy’s nice guy.
May 13th 2004