Police in Mansfield using football to reach out to people seeking asylum

Officers in the town have teamed up with the Mansfield Town FC Community Trust to offer free weekly football sessions to young men staying at a local hotel.

The sessions take place at the club’s One Call Stadium and are free to participants from different parts of the world who are waiting to learn the outcome of their asylum applications.

PC Kevin Marshall, beat manager for Mansfield and a life-long Stags fan, said: “We’ve been visiting the hotel on a regular basis just to make sure everything is okay.

“We’ve had absolutely no trouble down there, but wanted to make ourselves known to the guys and explain we are here to help everyone living and working in the town.

“We noticed they weren’t really doing a lot with their time or getting the exercise they needed and wanted to do something to help them.

“It was clear they liked football, so we reached out to the club and the rest is history.

“I have been a Mansfield Town supporter all my life and the club has been absolutely fantastic.

“They’ve let the guys use their facilities for free, have provided staff to make up the numbers, and have even welcomed the guys to a home game.

“We may not be able to communicate in the same language but we have been able to communicate through the language of football and that is a great thing.”

Gary Shaw, of the trust, said: “The police approached ourselves to see if we could offer them anything so we gladly opened our doors to weekly football sessions where they can come and enjoy the world game.

“Our staff organise the sessions and timings, and we are happy with the number of participants that attend weekly.

“We have piloted the sessions since mid-March and now have extended the provision to Christmas.

“This project falls into our category of mental health and wellbeing delivery, and we are looking to expand on this as we are currently in talks with other refugee and asylum seekers groups to see if they would like to attend too.”