Twenty Years in the Making
2025 marks the twenty-year anniversary of the origins of the work of Street Soccer Academy. It was back in 2005 that our Chief Executive, Andrew Thorp, accepted an invite from a Manchester inner city charity to establish a football project aimed at engaging with homeless men, with the aim of providing them with wrap-around support. To mark the achievement there will be a number of events arranged throughout 2025, including the return of the SSA Cup and some exciting developments with regards to Street Soccer Academy’s branding.
LOOKING BACK
Back in 2005 the focus of our work was to provide a diversionary football-based activity on a weekly basis, providing homeless men, both rough-sleepers and those living in hostels or temporary accommodation, with something positive in their lives, something to look forward to in an otherwise chaotic lifestyle. Very early in delivering the sessions it became evident that the sessions would benefit individuals not necessarily considered homeless, but none the less suffering from acute needs and that the demand for such sessions existed in most communities beyond the city centre, into the rest of the boroughs of Greater Manchester. It was in the planning of the expansion of the work that Andrew re-engaged with Simon Murphy, SSA Chief Operating Officer, their paths having briefly crossed earlier in community-based football. In 2007 Andrew & Simon established their first joint collaboration in Bolton and by 2009 Simon had joined Andrew working full-time for the same inner city charity. As the project grew it became more and more evident that the project Andrew had established back in 2005 had huge potential to impact the lives of hundreds of disadvantaged individuals across our region, but in order to achieve this the work needed to establish itself, in it’s own right, with specific aims and objectives tailored to working with disadvantaged individuals in the arena of community football. In 2010 Andrew and Simon, with a small board of directors, established Street Soccer Academy as a UK limited company, achieving the current status as a UK Registered Charity in February 2011.
Please keep an eye on our social media channels for updates regarding events in the later stages of 2025 to celebrate this significant milestone in our history. We hope to catch up with many of you, in person, soon.
