Red Sea FC: the refugee football team building community through the beautiful game

It’s a crisp Sunday morning. Football boots slide across the astroturf at the Forest Recreation Ground. Shouts in Arabic, Trigrinya, and English fill the air. I am here to watch the training session of a football club with a difference, and to meet a man with a vision. 

Red Sea FC was founded by Ezedin Osman, the recent men's football ‘Coach of the Year’ at the Nottinghamshire FA Grassroots Football Awards. 

Ezedin founded the team in 2019 to deliver a positive message about refugees and asylum seekers, while providing a space for them to feel at home and make friends in an unfamiliar place. He aimed to create the kind of support network he wished had been available to him when, ten years ago, he came to the UK, as a refugee from Eritrea. 

The club’s motto is ‘home away from home’, reflecting Ezedin’s hopes that it will combat the isolation that comes with being forced to flee your homeland.

“I think having this environment is really good,” he says. “It means a lot for the newcomers. Imagine them leaving their families, people that they love, their parents. When they come here, when they find somebody from their place, somebody who speaks their language – they feel like they belong somewhere, so that loneliness will be gone”

The players echo that sentiment. “The community is very nice, and the atmosphere, the vibes, everything. I really like it so much,” says Sudanese striker Hussein Muhammed. “It's refreshing to be here among people from my country, and of course the British people”

The camaraderie among the players is palpable. They are laughing, celebrating each other’s goals, and the only time anybody seems to stop running is to check on fellow team members who have slipped. 

When Ezedin founded this team in 2019 there were only eight players. There are now more than seventy – the number attending training sessions each week is restricted by the capacity of the pitch, rather than the number of players available. 

Last season, Ezedin coached and managed the team through a successful run in the local league. This season, they are taking a break from the league to focus on becoming financially self-sufficient, but the team is still undefeated so far in their friendly matches. Ezedin has earned respect, not just from Nottinghamshire FA, but also from his players. Sudanese striker Saif Musa describes Ezedin as his “role model” and midfielder Abdulah Musa says “He's a good man. He's helped people a lot”.

Managing the team is a far cry from Ezedin’s corporate day job as project manager. However, he feels that some of the skills carry over: “It's something like my hobby to bring people together. Coaching is not even my thing. I'm not even into football. I don't even watch football, but, because I'm a project manager, I have the ability to bring people together and I have the ability to organize people.” 

“This is quite an important thing to me,” he continues. “Refugees, asylum seekers – I speak for their voice. We are saying by action that we are here, we can contribute, we can do something, we can be part of this environment. These guys came here not just to have fun, or to enjoy the UK weather. They came here because they were forced to, but they can contribute. And they are quite young people that have a future ahead of them. They are all into full time jobs now.”

Last season the team was sponsored by the charity Refugee Roots. Now that momentum is growing, Ezedin has plans to become self-sufficient – something he views as essential in resisting narratives that refugees are here to take advantage of the system. 

“We need to create an environment where we can generate our own incomes and we don't have to depend on any external body, because we want to show that we can depend on ourselves,” he says. “We don't want to be a burden on the system or a burden on people, so we just want to be self-reliant. That's why the guys are getting into full-time jobs and I’m asking them to contribute on a regular basis.”

“So I think the narrative at the moment, or the understanding that people have, is these guys coming to this country just want to depend on the system – live on benefits with the mindset that we always wait for handouts. We want to create an impression that we don’t want handouts. We want an environment where we can progress, develop, and depend on ourselves. So whoever wants to support us, they can show us the path and the way.”

The message is pertinent, as the far right continue to stoke fear and spread misinformation about refugees. The dangers of this rhetoric are not lost on Ezedin. 

“I think now the environment is quite hostile to be honest – for no reason at all. These guys are not culprits, they are not murderers, they just fled their home countries, war and conflict. All they want here is peace of mind – freedom to live, study, live their dreams, work and support their families.” He hopes that football can spread a message of inclusion to the local community. “Whether you like it or not, we are here, but we don't want to be a burden to the system.”

Ezedin has big plans for the future of Red Sea FC. As the club continues to grow, he wants to look towards securing corporate sponsorship rather than rely on charity support. He’d like to turn the club into an academy and welcome in the wider migrant community in Nottingham, as well as locals born here. He wants the football club to become “a place where an English guy comes to and feels at home and feels that he belongs. A place where a migrant comes here and finds somebody who speaks their language, or behaves in the way that they do back home.”

@redseaclub_notts