CDC S01E01: How One Club Are Being Forced Out Their Home To Make Way For West Ham

The Club Development Podcast

We kick off our new Club Development Consultancy podcast with a fascinating interview with Andy MacRae, General Secretary of Bealonians FC who are currently petitioning Redbridge Council to keep their club at Oakfields Playing Fields. Bealonians FC have been in the London Borough of Redbridge since 1936 and are the largest grassroots football club in the borough. At the request of Redbridge council, Bealonians FC have been caretakers of Oakfields Playing Fields since 2020. Looking after it in the absence of a lease, they have invested in its maintenance and provided a vital lifeline to the community. The club have since learned that the council is planning on granting the lease to Premier League club West Ham United, which would leave Bealonians FC and its 29 youth teams (including two girls teams) and ten adult men’s teams, without a place big enough in the borough to relocate to. The club claims that if they were to lose the site, it would have a dramatic impact on the health and wellbeing of the community - counter intuitive to a number of priorities stated in Redbridge Council strategy. It would also mean the potential privatisation of what is currently a public green space enjoyed by thousands in the community.