{"id":216751,"date":"2026-01-02T15:03:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T15:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/216751\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T15:03:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T15:03:14","slug":"why-im-supporting-a-five-a-side-team-of-ex-prisoners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/216751\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I\u2019m supporting a five-a-side team of ex-prisoners"},"content":{"rendered":"

On and off stage, the Welsh actor Michael Sheen has often starred in football roles: he has played the football manager Brian Clough, captained the winning Soccer Aid team at Old Trafford, helped fund the Homeless World Cup in Cardiff and is the vice-president of Port Talbot Town FC.<\/p>\n

Now Sheen, 56, is supporting a five-a-side team who play on Monday night near Aldgate \u2014 all trainees of Switchback, a prison rehabilitation charity supporting young men leaving the justice system.<\/p>\n

The monthly football sessions provide an outlet and regular sense of community as the trainees navigate probation, trying to find employment and adjusting to life on the outside. <\/p>\n

Sheen, who described football as his \u201cfirst passion\u201d growing up, said: \u201cOne of the great things about football is that it\u2019s a great leveller. It doesn\u2019t matter what\u2019s going on in the rest of your life, or where you are socially or economically: playing football on a football pitch, everyone is sort of the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can help, especially if you\u2019ve got stigma around other elements of your life. You can just let that go on the football pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

Sheen as Brian Clough in The Damned United<\/p>\n

ALAMY<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

Sheen lifts the Soccer Aid trophy at Old Trafford in 2010<\/p>\n

SHIRLAINE FORREST\/WIREIMAGE<\/p>\n

The conversations during the match certainly resembled every other on five-a-side pitches across the country: where were the bibs, who was the rushback goalie, how could someone miss an open goal \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a tough game but I\u2019d like to thank my manager, I\u2019d like to thank my mother,\u201d one of the men joked as he came off the pitch, steaming.<\/p>\n

The group \u2014 which lacks a team name or kit of their own \u2014 has played other charities and partners, and has even had two members play internationally in the Homeless World Cup. <\/p>\n

\"Six<\/p>\n

The team pose for a photo before the action begins, below<\/p>\n

AKIRA SUEMORI FOR THE TIMES<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

AKIRA SUEMORI FOR THE TIMES<\/p>\n

Sheen said that as well as health, the sessions helped trainees with teamwork, collaboration and discipline. \u201cYou can find positive role models, especially if that\u2019s not something that has been around for you,\u201d he said, \u201cThat sense of camaraderie, being part of a community can be really important. It\u2019s something that can provide structure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ash, a 23-year-old winger who has only been out of prison for 12 weeks, scored most of the goals for the team in bibs. <\/p>\n

\"Ash<\/p>\n

Ash said Switchback had kept him on a \u201csimple path\u201d<\/p>\n

AKIRA SUEMORI FOR THE TIMES<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve not been here long but I appreciate how quickly everyone gels and how open everyone is to chatting with one another and hearing each other\u2019s stories,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t have any friends that have the same lived experience, so getting advice from them is kind of na\u00efve, in a way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ash, who is now training as front of house through Switchback at The Dusty Knuckle Bakery<\/a>, said he was poor at organisation, but Switchback had kept him on a \u201csimple path\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said playing football in prison had \u201cre-sparked\u201d his joy for the sport after a childhood playing at an intense academy level. \u201cThere were a couple of decent players,\u201d he added, before the group started laughing. \u201cThen there were a couple of guys who just wanted to get out of their cell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Switchback, one of the charities supported by The Times and Sunday Times Christmas Appeal<\/a>, provides eligible prisoners with a mentor during their final three months inside to prepare for release, before 12 weeks of structured real-work training and therapeutic mentoring to establish stability.<\/p>\n

As well as Dusty Knuckles, Ash\u2019s teammates had trained on a railway safety course, as mechanics at XO Bike<\/a>, a repair shop run by ex-offenders, and Inside Out, a fashion brand designed by former prisoners.<\/p>\n

Almost 91 per cent of the trainees who successfully complete the programme do not reoffend within a year of release, compared with about half of prison leavers nationally.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Many ex-prisoners prefer jail to homelessness. That\u2019s where we come in<\/a><\/p>\n

The charity hopes to increase the football sessions to twice a month and potentially join a league but is limited by its budget and resources. Pitch hire, even with a charity discount, is \u00a381 per hour.<\/p>\n

Freddie Harding, one of the charity\u2019s ten mentors, who played in the match, said: \u201cA lot of the day-to-day work is one-to-one \u2014 which obviously works well \u2014 but the thing that is really positive about the football is bringing a sense of community.<\/p>\n

\"Freddie<\/p>\n

Freddie Harding<\/p>\n

AKIRA SUEMORI FOR THE TIMES<\/p>\n

\u201cThe football brings people together. They\u2019ve all got something in common by being on a Switchback programme already \u2014 but also it\u2019s something else to talk about when people are in the office.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tashan Lane-Pierre, a former Switchback trainee and now a mentor himself, played for the non-bibs. The striker, 30, has also travelled with another charity, Street Soccer, to football tournaments at both Dutch and Serbian prisons.<\/p>\n

\"Tashan<\/p>\n

Tashan Lane-Pierre<\/p>\n

AKIRA SUEMORI FOR THE TIMES<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very different,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Dutch prison was amazing, they had five-a-side pitches. Even when you went inside, the buildings were all new. <\/p>\n

\u201cEven the Serbian prison was better than the majority of the prisons I\u2019ve been to here as well. It was connected to a hotel and the waiters were the prisoners.\u201d<\/p>\n

Find out more about the Christmas appeal and donate by calling 0151 286 1594 or by clicking the button below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On and off stage, the Welsh actor Michael Sheen has often starred in football roles: he has played…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[458,146,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-216751","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}