It was salutary to see the recent comments of the chairman of the Hackney & Leyton Football League, Mr Johnnie Walker, about the adequacy of the plans for supporting grass-roots football on Hackney Marshes. He's not happy - and with good reason!
As the founder of a London-wide football league struggling to survive shortages of pitches and referees - the reason I became a qualified referee myself! - Hackney Marshes was a godsend. Even so, for most of our student players from overseas it must have been a strange introduction to British sporting life getting up at an unearthly hour on a Sunday morning, struggling to find the Marshes by public transport, taking a long walk to the very furthest pitch and finally recuperating under cold showers on a concrete floor in what appeared to be an overcrowded tin shack. What bliss when the first wonderfully-surfaced football pitches were laid out in Finsbury Park.
Mercifully, that was all a good time ago. Proposals for "world-class facilities" on Hackney Marshes are all the more welcome. However, they must not result in the kind of disruption that can shatter the morale of many amateur leagues and players. I guess Mr Walker knows what he's talking about. It looks like he also knows the need to keep up constant pressure to ensure that politicians' and architects' 'visions' actually work out for the benefit of ordinary people. All power to his elbow.
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