Rotherham football project bringing refugees ‘happiness’ after years of fear

When rioters stormed a hotel housing asylum seekers in Rotherham and set it on fire last summer, Abel Zenebe was so scared he did not leave his house for two weeks.

Abel, 25, had travelled alone to the United Kingdom by boat from France and sought asylum amid civil conflict in his native Ethiopia.

He came to Rotherham last December and was recently granted residency. He is building a life for himself, and has just started GCSEs with a view to doing an accountancy course at university. He is also getting himself physically and mentally fit through his love of football.

Zenebe lives five minutes away from where the United 4 Communities (U4C) group run by the Rotherham United Community Trust (RUCT) holds its training sessions. The U4C project helps to support the integration of refugees and asylum seekers into the community through the universal language of football.

The group was first started in 2013 and is funded by the South Yorkshire Community Foundation, but has been running in its current form for the last three years since the easing of Covid-19 restrictions.

“I met all of my friends here. It’s nice to come here and enjoy being with the team,” Zenebe told the PA news agency.

Zenebe has found Rotherham people overwhelmingly friendly and welcoming since he arrived, but admits to feeling shaken by the events of the summer.

“Mentally, it impacted me negatively. I was scared for my life. I just sat at home for two weeks, I was not going out because I was scared of the people here,” Zenebe said.

“But afterwards I saw some of the people didn’t like these things (that had happened) and they were supporting us.

“So I started to go out and interact with people again. The coaches told us to come back – they were always with us, supporting us.”

Players had initially been advised to stay away from the U4C sessions by the coaches for their own safety, but numbers are now healthy again, and around 25 to 30 players attend training each week.

As well as refugees and asylum seekers, the group is supplemented by local players who, through football, have been able to combat loneliness and improve their mental wellbeing.

In addition to weekly training, a U4C team plays every other weekend in the 11-a-side Sheffield Flourish League.

“I genuinely do believe this is the best of football, the best of sport in terms of bringing people together, that community feel, celebrating and sharing each other’s differences, different cultures,” RUCT youth and inclusion manager Dylan Hadley said.

“There’s so much ‘othering’ when it comes to refugees and asylum seekers – (people say) ‘they don’t want to get involved in this way of life, they don’t want to be a part of it’.

“But who is giving them the opportunity to (get involved), who’s opening the door for them?

“That is what this club is all about, promoting social cohesion and just making everyone feel part of one team, regardless of their background.”

The U4C project is one of many run by Rotherham, whose wide range of community schemes are mirrored across the EFL’s 72 clubs. Between them, a new report has found they created a social impact value of over £1billion last season.

Rotherham striker Jonson Clarke-Harris visited the group to offer his support and pass on words of wisdom to the aspiring footballers.

“These are just human beings who want to have fun, like all of us, be active and be settled. I don’t see a problem with that at all,” he said after he had delivered his team talk.

“Football brings people together. Race, sex, doesn’t matter. Football is the same in every language.”

Another squad member is Sulieman Adam, originally from Sudan.

He came to the UK in 2016 with his immediate family, but still has relatives back at home, where a civil war has broken out between rival factions of the military government.

“Life was good, but now they have started fighting and at this moment, it’s so bad,” Sulieman, 22, said.

“People are being killed every day. Every day I am hearing thousands of people have died and so many are injured.”

Sulieman was introduced to the U4C group by older friends, and is now heavily involved in bringing new players in.

“I can’t lie, (the project) is amazing. When you have nothing, you can come here for fun – it’s positive, you see new people every week.

“When I first came it was difficult for me because I didn’t know anyone. Over time I’ve come to know everyone, and it’s got easier for me.

“I think football is about communication. We’re all from different religions and race, but football communicates to everyone like a team, like a family.”

Their coach Hadley said: “The misconception that these lads have taken away jobs or money or benefits or are committing crime, just doesn’t match the lived experience of seeing them every week.

“These lads are absolutely top class. It’s a pleasure to be able to work with them. Number one, they’re great footballers. Number two, they’re a great laugh, and they’re some of the kindest, most supportive people I’ve met, with one another and even with myself sometimes.

“It really does make a difference in in their life, their confidence, their well-being. I think they hold themselves in a much higher regard because of the way they play in this team.”

Asked how he would sum up what the project has meant to him, Sulieman pauses before simply replying: “Happiness.”