The Reader: Playing football can help shape a brighter future for at-risk kids

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Benefit: Dele Alli
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13 June 2018
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YOUR article on how football set Dele Alli on the right path in life highlighted something that is happening each week right across the country [“Tottenham star Dele Alli on how football saved him from gangs”, June 6].

Investment by the Premier League, the FA and Government has enabled the Football Foundation to build 700 new floodlit all-weather pitches. Youngsters playing on them can gain invaluable life skills — including teamwork and communication skills — and improve their health and self-esteem.

However, these facilities are now also crucial for professional football clubs’ outreach work. For example, 69 clubs are delivering Premier League Kicks sessions. These engage some of the most deprived young people. Reductions in crime and anti-social behaviour of 20 per cent — and in some instance 60 per cent — have been recorded in areas where these initiatives have taken place.

Raheem Sterling, Wilfried Zaha and many more young talents were spotted at Premier League Kicks sessions.

So, as well as developing confidence and other attributes, football is now being harnessed as a powerful force for social cohesion and personal development across the country.
Rory Carroll
Football Foundation

EDITOR'S REPLY

Dear Rory

It is always encouraging to read how sport can improve the lives of young people. At its best, sport is a force for good, particularly with regard to one as popular as football, as excitement builds on the eve of the World Cup in Russia. If the proposed sale of Wembley proceeds, it will take investment in grassroots football to an even greater level. Should that happen, there is a good chance that England will have many more players like Alli and Sterling in the future. This would only complement the work that bodies such as the Football Foundation are already doing.

In a city like London there are many talented players waiting to be discovered, and it is essential they are given the best chance to realise their potential. We will all be cheering on the England team but it is as important to have an eye on the future as it is to follow the present. These initiatives will hopefully give England the chance to compete strongly at major tournaments for years to come.

Tom Collomosse, Deputy Sports Editor

Khan is going overboard in his drive to reduce air pollution

Your article [“New emissions zone to hit drivers with £12.50 a day ‘pollution tax’,” June 8] quotes Mayor Sadiq Khan saying he refuses “to stand back as Londoners breathe in air so filthy that it shortens our life expectancy”.

Vehicles do not pollute excessively because they are of a particular age; they pollute, more usually, because they are not properly maintained. Vehicles should be taxed according to what pollution any given car actually generates.
Peter Rutherford

I think Sadiq Khan’s plans to extend the ultra-low emissions zone to the North and South Circular Roads discriminate against those on low incomes. And who is going to pay for those, like me, who have old cars but cannot afford a new one? Khan seems to be blinkered to every consequence of his actions in the headlong rush to improve air quality by a fraction.
Marcia MacLeod

Try to establish a work/life balance

MICHELLE’S story [“Start-up pressure became a living nightmare for my mental health”, June 11] highlights the negative impact stress can have — both physically and mentally. Many business owners struggle to make enough time for their lives outside work, but having a good work/life balance, including regular time off, is key to staying mentally healthy.

The charity Mind recently surveyed almost 44,000 employees and found nearly half had experienced poor mental health, such as stress, low moods and anxiety, while working at their current organisation. Employers are increasingly acknowledging that happy staff are less likely to take time off sick, and are investing in initiatives such as flexible working and subsidised gym membership.
Emma Mamo
Head of workplace wellbeing, Mind

Tory rebels should not be silenced

I SEE that Theresa May has urged Tory rebels not to back amendments by the Lords because they “must think about the message Parliament will send to the European Union this week” — even though Parliament getting a vote is what the Leave campaign surely meant by “taking back sovereignty”.

Presumably our hapless PM is concerned that her Government could appear incompetent. Although, with David Davis threatening to resign every other week, Liam Fox’s negotiating skills and Boris Johnson’s verbal incontinence, that ship may well have already sailed.
Julian Self

WE HEAR all the bad news related to Brexit but what about the good news on future deals and trade? I’m becoming desperate to hear it.
Tony Howarth

All women have a right to abortion

I AGREE with Kerry Abel [The Reader, 11 June]. In the century since women were given the right to vote — and over the 50 years since abortion was decriminalised elsewhere in the UK — a certain number of Northern Ireland’s politicians still deny women in Ulster their basic human rights. Theresa May has the moral obligation and power to cut through the red tape and give desperate women the right to terminate unwanted pregnancies — itself an horrendous decision to make and live with. Now is the time to be bold and be remembered like Churchill and Thatcher.
Dominic Shelmerdine

ABORTION is not a human right. A child is a separate individual, dependent on the mother but not part of her. The Hippocratic Oath insists doctors “do no harm”.
Penny Baker

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