THE PASSION OF THE MARSHES

The Hackney and Leyton Football League celebrates its 60th season this year, but the teams are being pushed off the Marshes to make way for the 2012 Olympics. Chris Green meets the men behind Hackney's historic league to discuss the future of Sunday morning football.

THE midfielder controls the ball, and with a deft touch is off on a manic run, his head down against the driving rain. Opposition defenders slide around him, frantically trying to halt his progress. As he forces a way into the box, he looks up and flicks the ball delicately towards an onrushing attacker. The ball slows, sticks in the mud, and stops. A grateful and slightly overweight defender hoofs it unceremoniously clear.
“Oh my God. Have a crack Phil! None of this fancy stuff. Have a crack!” comes the manager’s cry from the touchline.

It’s Sunday morning on the Hackney Marshes (above), and one of Europe’s oldest and most famous football leagues is underway. Every weekend for more than half a century, hundreds of players and supporters have gathered here to enjoy the national sport in its purest form. The Hackney and Leyton Football League is in its 60th season this year, and is still going strong, boasting four leagues and 40 teams.

Johnnie Walker, the league’s Chairman and local dignitary, first played on the Marshes in 1952, aged just 17. “It was a pretty big league back then,” he remembers fondly. “There were even two junior divisions on top of the five main ones, so younger players could join in. Nowadays there are only four divisions, and everyone is over 18.”

It is a league with a surprisingly rich history. Many England greats cut their teeth here before turning professional: Bobby Moore, Jimmy Greaves, Stuart Pearce and David Beckham, to name a few. “Up until the 70s, a lot of semi-professional players used to turn up here,” recalls Johnnie. “We used to get good crowds for the big games: almost 500 people were there sometimes. I reckon the attendances were higher than for Leyton Town. People used to bet on the games – there were bookmakers by the side of the pitch.”

A few metres away stands Ken Bartel, the self-proclaimed manager, secretary, bottle washer and father of Premiership club FC Pollard. He used to play on the Marshes when he was younger, and is convinced the league is vital to the area.

“After the war it gave people the chance to relax and to play a game of football. It’s very competitive but of course there's a good social side as well. It’s helped to build bridges between communities. This really is grass roots football.” Johnnie agrees wholeheartedly, especially about the league’s competitive edge. “When I used to play it used to be quite rough, and it still is,” he says with a glint in his eye. “It was a hard league. The language may be a bit more spectacular nowadays, but other than that, it’s quite similar.”

I see what the two men mean after watching the First Division game between Army & Navy and Delta, which lived up to its military billing by producing two red cards and a mass brawl before half time. “I can’t condone that sort of behaviour Matt,” rages Kevin, the Army & Navy manager, addressing his offending player. “I mean, you didn’t have to stand on his neck, did you?”

But this is an isolated incident, and the passion showed by the players, managers and supporters on this miserable March morning makes it easy to forget the occasional moments of madness. On an adjacent pitch, arguably the most passionate man on the Marshes is pacing the touchline, shouting instructions to his centre back.

His name is Stan Gittings, and he has been managing his team, Midfield, almost since its conception 40 years ago. To this day, the club’s blue strip can be found on the Marshes every week. “It’s funny,” Stan says as he looks back over the decades. “Some of these lads’ fathers used to play for the club when I first started managing it, and now their kids are playing for me! It makes me feel old.”

As we talk, one of the Midfield players goes down under a crunching tackle. Stan is first on to the pitch with a water bottle, returning a moment later only slightly out of breath. “When I first started coaching, we had three teams, and used to win things,” he recalls. “Now there’s only this one. Hardly any of the clubs have more than one side now, due to the expense, but it’s important to keep it going. It keeps the kids doing something on a Sunday, keeps them off the streets.”

Looking around the vast expanse of thriving pitches, with the great tower of Canary Wharf looming in the distance, it is difficult to imagine a time when football is not played here on a Sunday. But now the future of Hackney Marshes football is in doubt, ironically due to the approach of what promises to be London’s largest sporting event ever: the 2012 Olympic Games.

The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) intends to concrete over the East Marsh and use it as a giant car park for the Games, after the site was leased to them for £1 million by Hackney Council. The league has been promised that the land will be returned to them in a better condition when the Games are over, but Johnnie Walker is not convinced.

“They say they’ll give the marshes back and do them up, but we don’t believe them,” he tells me. “All of the players are really angry about it. We just want our football facilities as they are – we’re worried that after the Games, the cost of the pitches could escalate. It’s £42 per pitch now, and that’s barely affordable. There are 1,500 footballers here today, and they have brought along supporters too. This will affect all of us in the long run: they are desecrating the area. Why the national sport should give way to the Olympics is a mystery to me.”

All the managers and players agree that they have been let down by Hackney Council and the FA, who are constantly preaching about the importance of grass roots football in producing quality English players. “It’s a load of crap,” says Stan Gittings when I ask him about the situation. “The government and the FA talk about having good facilities for kids to play football, and yet they’ve allowed this to happen.”

The ODA has told the league that fixtures can continue on the rest of the Marshes, but a quick walk over there reveals the idea to be laughable. It is, as its name suggests, a marsh.
“They know that the East Marsh has the best drainage,” says Stan. “That’s why they want to build on it, and also because it’s closer to the site of the Olympic village. But you can’t play proper football on the rest of the Marshes. As soon as it rains the entire lot of fixtures would have to be cancelled.”

Stan breaks off to celebrate his side equalising against their Second Division rivals, Big Kahuna. With just five minutes to go, the famous blues of Midfield make it 4-3 and hold on to claim an important victory. Stan goes to shake hands with the referee before celebrating with his players.

Another week’s fixtures are over and the players begin their long trudge towards the run-down changing rooms with the burger van parked handily outside. Later tonight, the results will be posted on a website, one of the few concessions that the Hackney and Leyton Football League has made to modern technology since its creation 60 years ago.

“This is real football. It’s not muck,” says Johnnie Walker, gazing out over the expanse of the Marshes. It is difficult to argue with that.