THE OLMYPIC BID AND LATEST NEWS

Check out a recent documentary short on the hackney marshes and the olympic bid

ALSO A GREAT VIDEO TO WATCH BELOW

A video interview with chairmain Johnie Walker on the Olympic bid and the effects on our league
www.spectacle.co.uk/projects_page.php?id=246

....................................................
LATEST
August 2010 - By Johnnie Walker
By now most of our members will have heard of the desecration of pitch ten on the East Marsh. This act of treachery by Hackney Council, hand in hand with the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), has particularly tried my patience. They waited till our backs were turned and we had vacated the East Marsh pitches at the end of the season, and then they slivered in like snakes in the grass.

It is just another sample of their back stabbing behaviour that we have had to put up with since day one. Promise after promise has been broken and to say that they have been economical with the truth is an understatement.

We can trust nobody’s words who are involved in this Olympic fiasco, and quite honestly the only real friend we have in this evolving disaster is the Hackney Gazette, who have given us great support by questioning every motive of these Olympic vandals.

I was fortunate enough to be interviewed on ITV’s London Tonight News, some of you may have seen it and noted how aggressive and angry I appeared to be, reason being, some little jumped up ‘jobsworth’ approached us when we were setting up the interview, and told us we were trespassing.

Well that was a real wind up and I let him have such a volley that he retreated behind the barrier and called his masters on a mobile phone, and would you believe it, a helicopter showed up and hovered over our heads.

Anyway, ITV, being fair minded, allowed Hackney Council the right to reply on the same programme and it was left to Councillor Guy Nicholson to put the case for the defence. Well you can imagine the clap trap that poured from his lips; it was the usual propaganda that they have been shoving down the Medias’ throats ever since they got their mucky paws on a part of the Olympic legacy.

His whole spiel was riddled with political correctness regarding how wonderful it will be on the Marshes after the new posh facilities were in place and how it will be great for all sections of the community who want use the facility. I just wish that he might show up one Sunday Morning to see how we are going to cope with inadequate facilities that he, Hackney, and the ODA, have spent a small fortune on.

The thing that concerned me all along about these arising problems, is that the lack of adequate facilities, e.g. not enough dressing rooms, staggered kick-off times, car parking, and it will inevitably bring opposing leagues into a certain amount of conflict. Already there are signs of resentment from the East London league as we will be forced to adopt changes that none of us wanted.

We are seen as the intruders because we demand to have the sole use of the twelve new pitches on the South Marsh. They were promised to us as a replacement for the East marsh and we insist that that remains the case, and of course the East London league would like us to share them with them. All this fuss and disruption to accommodate a few weeks of elitist sports that will be forgotten as soon as the new football season in 2012 kicks in.

I am sorry if I am scaremongering, but when the season ahead gets underway, we will all face problems. It will all be new to us. But we have got to learn fast as to how we cope with every situation that faces us if we are to survive.

We will have to change the habits of the past that we have grown used to over the years and we must all pull together, don’t just rely on your committee, we will do all we can but we can’t work miracles, Just remember who are the real villains, firstly the FA, who have stood by and watched the ODA take so many liberties, then Hackney Council for caving in to every demand from the Olympic vandals as they steal more and more of the Marshes, and lastly the people responsible for the new facilities on the South Marsh, because we were never consulted as to what was needed from these plans to secure a healthy future for football on the Marshes.

I suggest that we all put our thinking caps on and try to come up with some sensible solutions to some of the problems that we will surely face, for instance, car sharing to minimise the limited car park spaces. Getting your players to arrive early would also be a great help because there will be a lot more walking to the pitches seeing as the South Marsh changing rooms will have to be used by the teams on the East Marsh, and to make matters worse, the proposed new foot bridge across the River Lea from the South to the East has only just received planning permission in spite of it supposedly having to be in place to alleviate the problem of a long distance to walk to and from the East Marsh pitches.

Finally, if anyone wanted visual proof of the destruction and damage that is taking place at the once iconic home of grass roots football, take a look at the sad sight of the vanished and no longer to be seen again East Marsh changing rooms, bulldozed to the ground along with pitch ten. And they call this progress?

-----------------------------
The East Marsh changing rooms and car park are no more. As well as pitch 10.

Players will now need to change and park at The South Marsh and walk over to the East Marsh for the 2010/11 season.

From next season (2011/12) the East Marsh pitches will be gone too. The league will continue to operate as best it can during these times.

Design: www.FlintstoneWebDesign.co.uk