Inter Mancunia
Article published: Monday, August 3rd 2009
There’s a brand new football club in Manchester – only this one’s a bit different. Forget billionaire owners, big money transfers and sky-high ticket prices. Inter Mancunia FC, based in Moss Side, has been specially created to accommodate the most excluded and vulnerable parts of the local community.
Inter Mancunia was formed last summer by Hulme resident Jenny Loudon, who admits to knowing very little about football. She assembled a small team of people who spent the next nine months putting the club together and looking for funding. Their plans turned into reality in March when they got the news they had been waiting for – Inter Mancunia had been awarded a grant of nearly £10,000 by the Football Foundation. The award gave the club enough money to hire pitches and retain the services of an FA-qualified coach for the next two years.
Jenny’s first mission was to set about recruiting young refugees and asylum seekers. The costs of kit, league subs and even the bus fare to training can make it virtually impossible for asylum seekers to join a regular football club, so Inter Mancunia has a policy of not making anyone pay if they can’t afford to. Jenny is passionate about the benefits that the club can bring to excluded young people: “It gives them the opportunity to get away from what can be particularly uncertain lives, and focus on something other than just being safe.”
Inter Mancunia’s coach – and another driving force in the creation of the club – is Jenny’s Hulme neighbour Damien Mahoney. Jenny is effusive about Damien’s contribution: “He has a bond with the players. They respect him both because of his energy for the game and because he’s a genuinely good human being.” It was also Damien who coined the name Inter Mancunia. Jenny recalls: “We wanted something with an international feel, to reflect the players, and something specific to Manchester.”
More than 20 young people from almost as many different countries are already turning up at training sessions on Thursday nights. Aiming for a diverse mix of people, the club is now concentrating its efforts on attracting players and volunteers from outside the refugee community. Several coaching volunteers are already on board and some will soon be trained up to get their FA coaching badge.
Inter Mancunia plan to compete in tournaments over the summer and play in a local league next season. As for the longer-term future, the sky’s the limit as far as Jenny’s concerned. She sees the club extending its activities way beyond football, and eventually becoming a registered charity. “I want the club to be a sustainable project that can offer isolated young people the opportunity to develop friendships, skills, confidence, self-esteem and resilience in the face of difficult situations,” she says. “And a few trophies in the cabinet would be cool!”
Sam Turner
More: Manchester
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