Saturday 11th October 2025 ko 14:00

Oxfordshire Senior League Division 4

OXFORD PHOENIX 3 (Abdalla 4 EL Bardhdadi 15 Sikod 18)

BICESTER PARK 0

Match abandoned due to safety pins on the pitch.

Att 15 at Greyfriars Catholic School, Cricket Road, Oxford

Free Entry

It’s not massively unusual for me to be invited to games, although it’s always humbling to be asked. This one was a little unusual. Around 15 years ago I was watching a Sunday league game on a little used pitch in the suburb of Botley to the north of Oxford. As a club White Horse Abingdon have long since folded but recently I was sent a message by one of their former players.

Youcef El Barhdadi was and still is an engaging chap, the kind of bloke who breathes air into any room he finds himself in. I spotted him in Oxford United’s most recent team photo, the club wanting to reward, and shine a light on those who have put something back into our local community. And Oxford Phoenix certainly are doing that.

Oxford Phoenix are a refugee-focused club to allow young footballers access to football when simply accessing the game can be a massive barrier. Imagine being in a country where you don’t speak the language, you don’t know whether you’ll be allowed to stay, and you have no idea where any facilities are?

What has been created is a club where other than a player/coach and Youcef as player/manager all the players are either a refugee or asylum seeker. Youcef’s father was a refugee and clearly is a huge inspiration to both his son and the club he helped found. As an aside Youcef’s folks run the La Croissanterie Cafe in Headington, I’ve been visiting that cafe for years without ever knowing the connection!

Phoenix have entered the Oxon Senior League’s bottom division- no I didn’t realise that league has a fifth tier and have based themselves at Greyfriars School, in Cricket Road. Those who’ve lived in Oxford for a while may remember the place in the 1980’s as the TVEI Centre; many people learned a vocational qualification here.

The facility is a typical 3G cage but spectators are allowed inside. And I’m sure the 15 of those of us watching would have seen a thoroughly entertaining Phoenix win, including a spectacular strike from Youcef himself, had someone not discovered a safety pin when defending a corner.

The offending pin was open so the safety risk was obvious so the match was paused so all present could form a line and scan the pitch for further pins. Sadly more where found, apparently the pitch had been rented our for a trials game and some of the players had simply ditched their numbers and the pins that held them on to their shirts when it was over. That left the referee little option but to abandon the game on safety grounds.

Of course I’ll be back, I’ve now got unfinished business with Phoenix, so I’ll be keeping an eye on their fixtures. But that seems like me worrying about being a groundhopper and the politics that inevitably come with that. Fundamentally what Oxford Phoenix are, and what they are set up to do is far more important. It is a honour for me to tell you a little about them, and hopefully people will come and support them.