Inside Kinetic Academy, the charity founded by a Chelsea coach giving players a second chance

In the aftermath of the 2011 London riots, when groups of young men looted shops and set fire to cars and buildings around the capital, two aspiring football coaches were jolted into action by the sight of smoke billowing into the night sky. Home secretary Theresa May called the offenders “thugs” and justice secretary Ken Clarke blamed a “feral underclass”. Much of the media rhetoric urged authorities to lock them up and throw away the key.

But to James Fotheringham and Harry Hudson – who is now a familiar sight in the Chelsea dugout – the fires burning on their doorstep in Croydon were a community’s distress signal. Hudson had studied sport’s role in social inclusion at university in Southampton, and when he returned to London that summer to witness the riots unfold, he and Fotheringham decided to set up their own outreach programme, putting on free coaching for young people who couldn’t afford to pay. The sessions were deliberately timed in the early evening during the most common hours for anti-social behaviour.

A building damaged by arson during the riots is pictured in Croydon, 10 August 2011 (AFP/Getty) What started as a local scheme has grown into one of the most impactful sporting charities in the country. Approaching its 15th anniversary, Kinetic Academy now has 400 boys and girls enrolled across the city, aged 16-18, and each place at Kinetic comes with a spot at a local school to continue their studies. It is a unique blend of football academy, youth charity and education programme.

“It started at a time with a group of kids that were being labelled in the media as ‘bad kids’, but the truth was that they didn’t have the opportunity, the equipment, the facilities to express themselves,” says Fotheringham. “Smashing shops up and thefts and everything that was in the media, it just wasn’t the true narrative of the kids that were out on the street. But what it did do was point a lens at what we can do as a society to give these kids more of an opportunity.