Fighting injustice through football: welcome to 419 FC
This article is also available to read as an interactive ‘Shorthand Story’. You can also learn more about 419 FC via episode five of The Boar Sport Podcast, which is available to stream on Spotify and Anchor. Brotherhood – 419 FC: The Documentary is now available to stream on YouTube.
With life at the University of Warwick disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, campus life has been placed on hold. The new normal, as it is so often termed, feels like an aberration from the past. In ordinary times, Warwick students would be sauntering around campus under the West Midlands sun, strolling towards the summer break with optimism in the air and duck excrement on the sole of their shoes.
If 2020 has taught us anything, it is that we are not living through ordinary times. Warwick does not exist within a vacuum; it is entangled within the status-quo and power structures entrenched in British society.
In a year defined by turmoil, Brotherhood – 419 FC: The Documentary offers more than just a glimmer of hope for a brighter future. Brotherhood, directed by Politics and Sociology finalist Damilola Oluokun, provides unprecedented insight into one of Warwick’s most popular intramural football teams.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Boar Sport, Dami emphasised the importance of having teams like 419 FC on campus during a period when racial injustice remains pervasive. On the surface, Brotherhood is a story about a campus football team – a group of friends that congregate each Saturday to play the sport that they have always adored.
The characterisation of 419 FC’s story as simply being about sport is inaccurate. As Chidi, a 419 FC forward, explained: “It’s not only about football. It’s about politics. It’s about music. It’s about fashion. It’s about careers.”
The team’s story is inspiring. As the title of their self-authored documentary suggests, 419 FC harbours much more significance than just being a football team. This is a story about a family, forged on the campus that we all call home.
Our aim is to try to subvert and change that narrative
– Damilola Oluokun
Seeking greater autonomy to improve the team’s fortunes, Feso – the club’s founder – established 419 FC as an independent intramural football team following an amicable split from the Warwick Nigerian Society (NSOC) in 2015. Initially, 419 FC was treated as a release from the stresses of academia – a campus safe haven for lovers of the beautiful game.
By the time Dami arrived on campus, 419 FC had started grow beyond the bounds of its founders’ friendship group: the club had entered a path to become a true Warwick institution.
“The club continued to grow and grow and grow and grow. More members kept on coming, and not just more members, but better footballers,” Dami told The Boar Sport, adding: “Just year-on-year better players would join the team. You start getting better results, you start to gain more of a following and that’s how 419 FC was born.”
Although 419 FC didn’t initially enjoy success on the pitch, the club’s founding figures laid the foundations for what would soon become one of the most recognisable teams on campus. A significant part of the team’s success in sustaining a vibrant community of supporters is the symbolic nature of the club’s name:
“Okay, it’s quite funny actually,” Dami admitted when quizzed about the genesis of the team’s name: “Within the Nigerian legal system, Section 419 relates to financial and monetary crimes… anything to do with financial crime is named 419.
“A common stereotype for Nigerians is that: ‘they’re all 419-ers: they’re frauds. They’re engaging in quite unscrupulous deals and whatnot.’
“We essentially named our team to try to subvert the meaning of 419: the whole point of us being 419 FC is that we steal points from other teams, you know? We play great football, and we take points away from them.
“Our aim is to try to subvert and change the narrative behind the idea of Nigerians being 419-ers.”
Although the precise meaning of 419 FC’s name is open to interpretation, the significance of the team’s presence on campus is self-evident. Dami’s 419 thesis is emblematic of the team’s desire to battle stereotypes on and off the pitch, a theme that runs throughout Brotherhood.
When you’re involved in the creative process you fall in love with basically everything about it
– Damilola Oluokun
Played out before the backdrop of Warwick’s Sommer Tarkett Pitch, Brotherhood follows 419 FC through the 2019/20 intramural season. Brotherhood provides viewers a comprehensive account of the team’s activities over the past academic year.
“We play some fantastic football and we’ve got a lot of supporters,” Dami told The Boar Sport: “We’ve got people who are quite invested and interested in what we do. So, we just thought this would be the perfect opportunity for them to see the kind of goings on [at the club].”
The idea of making a documentary about 419 FC was not, however, forged by the team’s current crop of leaders: Brotherhood is a project that was years in the making, Dami – the documentary’s director – admitted:
“We’ve had this idea for quite a while, actually. We’ve tried to do this on one or maybe two previous occasions, but it’s just never kind of mobilised, you know? We’ve never been able to create a sense of urgency and momentum towards creating it.”
Given Dami’s involvement in the team – he doubles-up as 419 FC’s player-manager – and the production of Brotherhood, our next question was slightly unfair.
“What is your favourite thing about the documentary?,” we asked.
“Its difficult to say when you’re involved in the creative process… You come to fall in love with basically everything about it.” Before committing to a moment, Dami contemplated his choice, agonising over a question we hadn’t anticipated would be taken so seriously.
“If I had to choose… I think I would go with the section that we did on Jay. I really enjoyed that [section] a lot,” after signalling our agreement, Dami continued: “I kind of like the way we’ve managed to marry Jay’s love of music and cultural aspects with football as well.
“I mean, at times when I was watching it, I was even thinking: ‘What is this? Is this like a music video?’
“We did a video where Jay’s rapping and then his goal is playing in the background. Yeah, it gave a kind of warmth to me. I’ll probably go with that that part of the documentary.”
Whenever you see any forms of injustice, we have to make sure that we stand up to it
– Damilola Oluokun
“I don’t think I’d be overstating it if I say that it’s basically everything to me. I mean, football itself is more or less my life. I’m not going to lie to you there. I live, breathe and eat football as a lot of football fanatics say,” Dami responded to The Boar Sport, without a moment’s hesitation when asked about the importance of football in his life.
“It’s one thing being able to play football, which I love so much, but then it’s another being able to do that with people who are actually your friends. [Playing football] with people who share a common ground with you, whether that be skin colour or nationality or whatever it be: it just enhances and takes your experience of playing football to a completely new and indescribable level.
“You feel just a massive sense of accomplishment because you’re playing – like I said – with people that you can call your band of brothers.”
It would be lazy to assume that 419 FC is simply a patchwork of students from across the University, Dami’s band of brothers were carefully selected at the start of the season to ensure that the team retained its family bond.
“It’s about being able to find people who we know can ease in and will be comfortable within the culture,” Dami explained to The Boar Sport. “When I took over this year as manager, we made sure that when we were looking for players that it wasn’t just about just picking any random Nigerian or Black player.
“Of course, your football ability is key, but we’ve got to find people who we feel would be comfortable within the culture… people who get the banter.”
The team’s camaraderie extends beyond the boundaries of Tarkett’s AstroTurf pitch, 419 FC is about much more than football: the team provides a much-needed space safe on campus for minority voices in our community.
“How important is it to be part of a team that shares so many values and experiences?”, we asked Dami.
“It’s massively important, most of us within the team are Black, so we can understand the plight that African Americans are going though. It affects us here in the UK as well: a few of us have had, quite sadly, ugly instances with the UK police, where we feel like we’ve possibly been racially profiled and treated wrongly.
“We discuss everything, not just about what’s going on here in Europe and the West, but also what’s going on back home in Africa and Nigeria – with cases of rape and torture. We discuss a range of issues that directly affect us and see how we can come to a compromise.
“A few of us even harbour hopes of possibly going into high political offices in the future. It’s good for them [to get] a good understanding of what the public opinion is, so that when they hopefully get into those political positions they are able to devise policies that could possibly help to solve this vast array of injustices.”
Our discussion with Dami had already proven insightful. The importance of 419 FC as an institution – rather than just a football team – had grown exceptionally clear. Although football is the medium through which the emotions behind 419 FC are often expressed, the team’s relevance in this moment in our history is unmistakable.
To finish our discussion, we asked Dami if there was anything that he wanted to shout-out at the end of the podcast. His response is emblematic of the gravity of the discussion that we shared.
“I think it just has to be that we’ve got to continue to fight against all forms of injustice that we see. You know, we have to understand that systemic racism isn’t just a problem in America it also happens here in the UK. It may not be as overt, but trust me, it’s still prevalent and affects the lives of a lot of Black, and other ethnic minority, people.
“I just want to say that whenever you see any forms of injustice, whether it be racial or gender or whatever: we have to make sure that we stand up to it. As Desmond Tutu said: ‘If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.’
“So, yeah, that’ll be my final point.”
This article is also available to read as an interactive ‘Shorthand Story’. You can also learn more about 419 FC via episode five of The Boar Sport Podcast, which is available to stream on Spotify and Anchor. Brotherhood – 419 FC: The Documentary is now available to stream on YouTube.
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