Football saved me from a life of crime, says Joey Barton

 
Joey Barton spoke at the Football Beyond Borders event in Shoreditch
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Alex Lawson @MrAlexLawson27 October 2014

QPR star Joey Barton has urged young Londoners to focus relentlessly on following their dreams as he described how football saved him from a life of drugs and violence.

Barton told an audience hosted by Football Beyond Borders — the partner of the Standard’s London United campaign — to shun distractions and use soccer to develop their character.

In a moving speech to a packed hall, including boys from Archbishop Lanfranc School in Croydon, he said: “Find something you love doing and go for it. Whether it’s playing football or selling football stickers online for a living, anything is possible.”

Speaking at Amnesty International’s UK headquarters in Shoreditch, Barton, 32, described the normality of violence, racism, gangs and drug use when he was growing up on the notorious St John’s estate in Huyton, Liverpool — and how football offered an escape route.

“My brother was involved in a murder of a black boy. It wasn’t him who killed him, my cousin killed him. They’re now serving life,” Barton said.

“They never knew kids who weren’t like them. I did, I played sport against them. Everything in their lives was the same as mine. The only thing that was different was that I was immersed in the world of football.

“You can be anyone you want to be, don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t.”

In 2005 Barton’s cousin Paul Taylor, 20, and the footballer’s brother Michael, 17, were jailed for the murder of Anthony Walker, 18, in Huyton.

Preston crown court heard they hurled racist abuse at the teenager, and Michael supplied the ice axe with which Taylor killed him.

London United uses football as an agent for social change, by funding the training of soccer coaches. Once qualified, they will work with disadvantaged young people in grassroots charities and on impoverished estates.

The campaign aims to train at least 100 FA Level-1 coaches from 18 charities by Christmas. It kicked off at Wembley Stadium earlier this month. Football Beyond Borders uses the sport to break down social barriers.

It took the first British team to play in occupied Palestine, and hosted the Favela World Cup in Salvador, Brazil this summer for those too poor to buy a ticket for the World Cup.

Jasper Kain, co-founder of Football Beyond Borders, said: “London United is an excellent campaign. Growing up in London is tough — there’s lack of space and facilities and the cost of living is high.

“London United is trying to solve that. Football is a great way to engage with disadvantaged people.

“The campaign provides a vehicle to reach young people and help them get qualifications and a job in football. The top players on the pitch on a Saturday afternoon are one in a hundred thousand. We have to help kids understand there are other careers in football, to harness their passion and help give them education and discipline.”

The Football Beyond Borders panel also included Britain’s first black soccer agent Sky Andrew, who has represented Sol Campbell and Jermain Defoe. He also played table tennis for Great Britain at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

At the Shoreditch event, he said: “I come from a very poor background in east London. My mum worked putting the lids on pies in a factory and I had to just go for it in life for her.”

London United is funded by Vitality, the healthy living rewards programme of insurers PruHealth and PruProtect.

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