Fun and games to kickstart the down at heel

From The Big Issue to Brazil: how a doctor's idea is raising the street cred of the misfits

A wet Wednesday afternoon in Battersea, and a group of blokes are kicking a ball around at the local youth centre. Nothing unusual in that – except that all of them are homeless and next year some of them could be playing in Brazil.

If this wasn't surprising enough, how about the fact that the man behind the idea is a young doctor who, in his own words, has "hung up his stethoscope" to concentrate on running a football league for the deprived, dossers, druggies, down-and-outs, and ex-cons. Throw in a batch of refugees and asylum seekers and you can see what an amazing venture this is. The brainchild of 30-year-old Dr Damien Hatton 18 months ago, the Street League now embraces 300 players and 36 teams spread across London, with plans to go nationwide, starting in the east Midlands and Scotland next year.

Last weekend the league kicked off a women's section, with six teams. The women, like the men, are all from the realms of the underclass, social misfits or miscreants who have discovered a common goal: football.

"I didn't have any high-minded ideas about how to sort out their problems. It all started as a way to give these people some fun," says the Preston-born Dr Hatton, a former rugby player who specialised in tropical medicine at University College Hospital, London. "I met quite a lot of them though my hospital work, and I just felt I wanted to do something for them. Football seemed the best vehicle to give them a lift."

Working with Dr Hatton is the 48-year-old Colin Watson who, like a surprisingly large proportion of the homeless, is a former serviceman. He was sleeping rough behind the Ministry of Defence in the Strand until a couple of years ago. Now he helps Dr Hatton orchestrate the Street League, for which they initially recruited by ringing around hostels to see if anyone was interested.

"We were surprised at the level of response," says Dr Hatton. "Our task really is to get them out of their beds, wherever they are, and on the training field, and to provide them with equipment and facilities. We try to remove all the barriers, then let the sport do the rest."

There are two hour-long training sessions at 13 centres each week and five-a-side league matches (there are two divisions, with promotion and relegation) are played every month. This culminates in a plate and cup competition for the dozen clubs at the end of the season.

So how did the Street League get from Battersea to Brazil? The idea began when the Brazilian national airline Varig offered tickets for raffle prizes at a Street League rally in Trafalgar Square. The organisers then persuaded them to increase the numbers to 15, and arrangements are now being made to take a Street League squad to play in an 11-a-side tournament climaxing in Bahia's 60,000-seater stadium next spring. They will play teams comprised of Brazil's homeless, visit leading clubs and meet Pele. "It is an opportunity for most of them who have never been abroad to do something they will never do again in their lives," says Watson. "These people can come from any background: mental and physical abuse, drink and drug addiction, broken homes and bereavement. There are all sorts of reasons they are out there."

The project has six-figure funding from the Football Foundation and Sport England, with FA-qualified coaches provided by the Football in the Community schemes. One of them, Dave Perry, who is working with Fulham, says: "Just playing this little bit of football has changed the lives of some of these guys. It is remarkable what this can do for their self-esteem and respect. There are some decent skills out there and the enthusiasm is terrific."

And it is not simply a social exercise, either. Club scouts regularly attend games and two of the players have been offered trials with Wimbledon and another with Bolton.

Players receive "credits" for attending training sessions and must have a sufficient number to play in competitive games and also qualify for the League's "lifestyle" scheme which plans to offer courses in other leisure activities and sports administration. Some of those now playing in the League may become coaches themselves, and one, 28-year-old Billy Dwyer, whose address was once c/o Cardboard City, Blackfriars Bridge, has become a referee. Dwyer, who has four children with three different women and has been on the streets or behind bars since he was 19 for what he insists are minor offences, says: "I've been a dosser most of my life but thanks to football I'm now picking myself up." He now has ambitions to referee in the pro game.

Such is the standard that it comes as no surprise to find a few ex-footballers among those who are now in this homeless and away league. One is a Sudanese Under-23 international, a refugee now playing for a north London team.

There are a couple of useful Bosnians and at Battersea we encountered 40-year-old Vince Richards, whose ball-juggling earmarked him as someone who knew a bit about the game. It turns out that he was a former England schoolboy trialist, then a regular in semi-pro football, last playing for Horsham. But, as he explained, his career was rudely interrupted. "I've been a bad boy. I had to go away for a bit." How long? "Seven years." What for? "Selling drugs. But that's all behind me now."

Like 34-year-old Rob Cooper, he has also worked as a chef and hopes to get back into the profession. Cooper, who lost his job due to an industrial injury and was subsequently evicted from his flat, has an estranged family in Manchester but was sleeping rough in London before getting hostel accommodation. "These football sessions are something to look forward to," he says. "Also it makes you more tolerant as a person. Some guys still have a lot of anger in them and it helps calm you down." Cooper says he has been rehabilitated medically and that football is helping him to find his feet again. "I no longer think I'm unemployable."

Now, for some of the more talented, there is Brazil to look forward to, plus the possibility of taking part next year in the first Homeless World Cup, at Graz, Austria, for which England team-trials take place at Manchester United's old training ground, The Cliff. These are being sponsored by The Big Issue. How remarkable that until Doc Hatton and his Street League came along the nearest some of the players had been to football was outside the grounds, selling it.