Summer 2019Interview with Keith Hicks - Rochdale AFC

Football in the Community Trust

Rochdale AFC’s Football in the Community Trust (FICT) initiative has been operating for 32 years.

Officially introduced in Rochdale in September 1987, Keith Hicks has been at the heart of the trust from the very beginning. Community Sports Trust Manager since October that same year, he has overseen the transformation of the scheme across the last three decades.

We interviewed Mr Hicks about his work with Rochdale AFC, including some of the work the Trust is doing currently.

What is Football in the Community Trust?

The scheme was set up by the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) in the late 1970s/early 80s when there was a lot of hooliganism surrounding football. Micky Burns and Gordon Taylor from the PFA thought that providing clubs with a community office, and getting them out interacting with the locals, would be a good way to engage people in the sport and prevent fighting.

The scheme was initially introduced at six clubs - Manchester City, Manchester United, Bolton Wanderers, Oldham Athletic, Preston North End and Bury - before Rochdale and five other clubs joined six months later.

The intention was to use the facilities at each club to promote community engagement and use players to act as role models, especially to youngsters in the local communities, which we are still doing today.

How/why did you get involved with the Trust?

I played football all my life. My highlight was playing at Old Trafford against Manchester United in the FA Cup - we beat them 2 – 0.

I came through the Academy at Oldham Athletic and made appearances for both Latics and Hereford United, before I was forced to retire from the game. I played for Dale between 1985 and 1987 and it was during a match against Crewe Alexandra at Spotland that I sustained an injury. Because I was looking for a job, I returned to the club and just fell into the community department.

It was something new at the club and they needed a hand, so it was perfect timing.

What are the aims of the trust?

The aims were, and still are, to encourage more people to play football, and to offer sport opportunities to different groups of people.

When we first started, FICT was just a school’s programme, and I went into local primary schools, high schools and SEN schools with a couple of bags of balls each week and simply delivered football, that was it.

As time has gone on, we have developed into a scheme where we have four main themes: education, health, social inclusion and sports participation. We break all of our activities down into these themes to benefit different individuals.

We want to get kids off the streets. The Kicks programme that we are doing does this at night time - we have got about 200 kids on Friday nights. One at Kingsway Park, one at Heywood Sports Village, a session at Soccer Factory and Rochdale Leisure Centre. A lot of them are upcoming school leavers, so the BTEC we provide will be right up their street.

One of the biggest issues at the moment in the borough is isolation, so we do the Silver 60s to try and keep the senior citizens amongst us active. In 2018, we had 35 senior members.

Walking football set off about two/three years ago and it is massive now all over the country. There are games at Heywood Sports Village where they are in a league. One guy has lost two stone in the last three years and he has got his love back for football again. He has now been invited to play for North West over 70s, which is brilliant.

We do work with asylum seekers and host disability programmes also. Sessions are seven days a week.

How does the scheme benefit the community?

Mentally, you just feel better running around playing football. People talk to us about a issues they have got but because of these sessions, they feel like they are doing something worthwhile. We benefit through Primary Stars, when we go to schools one day a week for 6-12 weeks, then teachers can copy our sessions if they want to.

We go to high schools to work with girls 14+, funded by Premier League, as it is believed when females get to 14, they lose all interest in sport – they meet boys, have other issues and they just drop sport. We have got over 100 girls now involved in our all girls section. They benefit because they can continue something they love, whilst having a good social life.

What has kept you going for these 32 years?

There are different projects to be working on every year and there are always new people to meet. The Trust work really does keep you on your toes.

From the start. the project’s aim was for people to be able to access quality sport provision whatever their age, gender or ethnicity, and I believe the same.

I will always remember helping Jamie Allen – current midfielder for Burton Albion - reach professional level. He was recommended to the Dale Academy and given an apprenticeship. This is just one of the highlights I have from my time here and why I love the job. There are so many things that we do daily, and we try to benefit everyone who comes to us.

I know we are a football club for mainly football fans, but we want to embrace all of the community.