Johnny Philips: Football is nothing without roots in its communities

On Monday afternoon two big non-league rivals will be joining forces in support of the greater good. Bootle FC and City Of Liverpool FC play in Northern Premier League Division One West on level eight of the pyramid.

The two clubs share a ground, with City Of Liverpool currently tenants at Bootle’s Berry Street Stadium, in Aintree.

The tenants pipped their landlords to the league title in 2019 and a fierce rivalry has built up in recent seasons.

Both clubs have a fine tradition of supporting their communities, too.

Bootle have an inclusion football team, Bootle Bucks, and have staged two nationwide disability football tournaments in recent years. The club have also raised money for the Megan Hurley Foundation, a charity set up to support families dealing with the loss of a child, in the name of a girl who died in the Manchester Arena bomb attack.

Meanwhile, City Of Liverpool are heavily involved in foodbank collections and also support refugees in the city.

Now, as the cost of living crisis bites, both clubs have come together ahead of their derby fixture on Monday afternoon to help workers from the NHS, rail companies, post office and others who are striking for better pay and conditions.

Joe Scatt helps run away day travel for Bootle and organises foodbank collections for South Sefton Foodbank and Sefton Community Pantry.

“It’s a solidarity day to raise money for people on picket lines,” he explains. “We’re trying to get as many different groups involved with placards and banners to emphasise the need for NHS pay rises and so on.

“Aintree Hospital is just around the corner from our ground. It’s an awful time of year and it’s a very difficult decision to go on a strike as you are sacrificing pay. People aren’t taking these decisions lightly.

“We want to show that people aren’t on their own and we believe in what they are fighting for. Local government is being decimated year on year with disastrous budget cuts and staff have suffered huge real-terms pay cuts.”

Bootle FC was formed in 1954, originally called Langton, born out of the name of one of the docks in Liverpool. Frank Doran founded the club as a dockers’ team. His son, John, set up Bootle’s inclusion team.

“Since the upsurge of foodbank collections we’ve always been involved in community support,” Doran says.

“We did a winter clothing donation in partnership with other non-league clubs. Everyone who watches non-league football must have big coats lying around from standing on the terraces through the winter, that was the idea of it.

“Along with our neighbours, Marine and Maghull, we got a good collection down to a homeless community.

“The inclusion football tournaments have been brilliant. We’re going to host a third one in the summer. The second one was a two-day event and we took in a lot more clubs.

“They’ve been a great success. Money is one of the big barriers to inclusion and we want to knock those barriers down.”

Affordable football has been one of the keys to the success of clubs like Bootle and City Of Liverpool. Jay McKenna has been attending City Of Liverpool matches since 2015, when the club was formed as an alternative to the spiralling costs of Premier League match tickets at Everton and Liverpool.

“Players and fans know each other from watching Liverpool and Everton, and the groundshare was a big thing in the rivalry,” he adds. “It’s partly why we’ve picked this game.

“It struck us as a good opportunity to show that people are thinking about the workers and care about what they are doing.

“People are losing pay and if we can raise money to help them buy a bacon butty while they are out on strike then that’s great.

“Football has a platform that can raise awareness and support for communities. A football club has a responsibility for the people coming through its gates on a Saturday. This is why we want to do it. These union members who are on strike are real people, they’re football fans, concert goers and part of our community. It’s a challenging time and if you live here you’ll have seen a picket line.” Scatt believes that non-league football all over the country has the potential to bring people together and support its communities and wants to see the top professional clubs follow suit.

“Liverpool, Everton and Manchester City have done a lot but it’s very supporter-led,” he continues. “Professional clubs could possibly involve themselves more as the fanbases are doing their bit. Non-league football is growing because of the cost of living crisis getting out of control. It’s almost impossible for a parent to take a couple of kids to watch Liverpool now, it’s a £250 day out for those of us living locally. Bootle is free for under-16s and just £8 for adults. A lot of lads who have dropped out of academies play here and there’s a lot of quality footballers at this level.”

Doran insists that professional footballers are becoming more socially aware, too, particularly in the light of the pandemic.

“Without being political, we had plenty from the government castigating professional footballers for speaking out at that time,” he continues. “Jordan Henderson drove that movement during Covid to help NHS professionals and many footballers have a charity or foundation now.”

At grassroots level, the opportunity for clubs to have a direct impact on their communities is far greater than it is at the top of the game. Doran believes clubs within non-league football can build on relationships at times like this.

“There must be a legacy to these kinds of movements. Since we’ve had support from Marine, Maghull and others, we need to get a formal partnership together to keep communities supported.”