Football on a mission: the friendly league that offers a safe place and feeds the needy

F rom the Lionesses campaigning for football for girls in school to Manchester City and Manchester United making a joint pledge to foodbanks at the start of the pandemic – the football community is no stranger to banding together for a good cause.

The friendly league Football for Foodbanks embodies this ethos. Founded in Sheffield by Matty Cassell, its donations amount to several thousands of pounds – a “stand’s worth” of bags of food – and hundreds of sanitary products to food banks and other charities.

However, donations are merely a “positive side-effect”. The league’s core aims are inclusivity and accessibility. Soon to celebrate its second anniversary, Football for Foodbanks has now opened further branches in Chesterfield, Manchester and Milton Keynes and welcomes men, women and gender non-conforming people.

It was officially founded in March 2021 but was running some months before that out of a desire for more no-strings-attached friendly football in Sheffield. “We encourage rubbish players, because sometimes there isn’t always a platform for them to play,” says the organisation’s website.

Cassell had lived in Vietnam, where the sport was played freely. He wanted to replicate a community-driven environment when he moved to Sheffield. “[The UK] is surprisingly exclusive for football,” he says. “There are a lot of people who get excluded from football and it’s not really fair. The idea is to offer as much football as possible to these people.”

Cassell organised occasional informal games where those keen to play would sign up on Facebook and pay £4 towards pitch and kit hire. Not wanting to make a profit, he then donated any leftover money to a food bank. Later Alice Rhind-Tutt, who was playing in the league’s early