Rab is Hare to stay
|Rab Hare is still actively involved with Street Soccer Scotland. Image: Street Soccer Scotland
“I’m still in contact with about 17 of the boys who have completed the course, I’m always there for them for a coffee and a catch-up”
Long standing volunteer Isobel Irvine first met Scottish Homeless World Cup champion Robert Hare when he was coaching at the Homeless World Cup in Glasgow in 2016. In September 2022 they had an overdue catch up.
“I used to think that asking for help was a weakness but now I realise it’s a strength. You need that support if you want to learn and make things better for yourself, so I’d encourage everyone to just ask.”
Wise words, in 2022, from a man who knows, oh so well, the power of football to change a life and the effect of Homeless World Cup to make the save.
A professional footballer on leaving school Robert Hare turned out for Dundee United, Airdrie, Clyde and East Stirling. His unplanned early retirement, however, came not through injury but as the result of a prison sentence.
“I came out and built my life up again,” he recalls, “I had my son Corey and life was going okay. Then I split up with his mum, lost my house, was made redundant from my job and within five months three of my close friends committed suicide.”
On the brink of taking his own life and sleeping rough on Glasgow’s streets, he sought help from his former probation officer who got him into a Salvation Army hostel where, during his year there, Robert found the Street Soccer programme.
“I went there twice a week which gave me an outlet from my troubles,” he says. “Homeless World Cup trials came up, I got picked, was honoured to captain my country and we won the Cup in Paris, a 4-3 victory, in 2011.”
Come 2016, Robert had become Street Soccer programme co-ordinator for HWC host city Glasgow and was responsible for the newest line-up at the tournament that year, an international team of refugees with no country to call their own, who he had coached at drop-in sessions in the city. Six years ago he helped Street Soccer United achieve some great results on the pitch while, off it, he helped the players turn their lives around.
Two years and 5000 miles later, Robert was again to be found with the Homeless World Cup logo on his sleeve, this time coaching the Scotland men’s team at the 16th edition of the tournament in Mexico City.
Four years on
A further four years on - the most recent three with international events ruled out due to the pandemic - where is he now?
Perhaps no surprise that September 2022 finds Robert still in his beloved Glasgow, still committed to helping people turn their lives around through football.
“After the 2016 tournament, I continued to take the coaching sessions up at the League at Townhead then, four years ago, funding came in to kick off a prison programme created by Street Soccer,” he explains.
“Obviously I’ve had experience of being in prison, and of homelessness, so I took that post on. Now I travel the country visiting the prisons, delivering education/coaching/football sessions and help the participants achieve a qualification at the end of it, a nationally recognised SCQF called Delivering An Event.”
Since Robert began running the course - “two years, if you take out the time lost to the pandemic” he adds - he reckons he’s overseen more than a hundred people through the programme. With two courses running currently, that takes the number to nearly 140.
“The participants have to organise a tournament, write letters to the governor and other officials, get partners in to help them run the event and complete is successfully,” he explains. “The SCQF has five different modules but this is the one I use in the prisons and it’s been tremendously successful. It started in one prison and now we’re up to seven.
“We do classroom work in the mornings then go out on the park for the practical work. By the time they’ve completed the course, participants are able to run a full coaching session and know how to stage an event. I’m in two different prisons twice a week - Barlinnie on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Addiewell on Wednesdays and Fridays. I keep Mondays free so that I can catch up with the guys who have already been liberated.
“I’m still in contact with about 17 of the boys who have completed the course, and I’m always there for them, for a coffee and a catch-up. A few of the ‘graduates’ have taken on roles coaching at their kids’ football teams, so that’s great.
“I think, when I go into prisons, I’ve got empathy with the boys, being an ex prisoner myself, so you have that mutual respect. It’s helped me develop different skills and increased my confidence.”
The pandemic also went some way to honing Robert’s skills as he searched for ways to keep the lines of communication open with his students who, like many others, struggled with lockdown.
“We managed to keep in touch with people through Zoom calls, through arranging for those in prison to get credit for their phones,” he explains. “We did a Street Soccer’s Got Talent night, drop-in sessions without actual contact, then I was out quite a lot with the minibus delivering food to hostels and those who really needed it, plus helping people with their electricity and gas through a fund we started.”
Robert’s glasgow legacy
|Rab Hare with his then 8-year-old son Cory at the Homeless World Cup in Glasgow. Image: Anita Milas
On a personal note, Glasgow 2016 saw Robert delighted to have rebuilt his relationship with his then eight-year-old son Corey, who led out Street Soccer United at George Square as the team mascot. That wee lad is now 14 and, Robert is delighted to report, their bond is as strong as ever.
“He’s in third year at school now and was involved with football but, like a lot of typical teenagers, lost heart a bit, so I’m hoping he’ll pick it up again,” Robert reports. “I’m sure whatever he does, though, he’ll do it well. He’s a good boy and we’ve got a great relationship. I’m still with my partner Lorraine, too - everyone’s good, everything’s great.”
While stressing that his full-time job keeps him so busy he prioritises his free hours for relaxing with his family, Robert adds that a couple of weekends ago he organised a sports day and football tournament for 30 foster kids - “as a favour for a pal who works in the care sector. We ran it up at Townhead, where the League is based, so the facilities were perfect. We had a big inflatable bubble ball, dodgeball, as well as a match tournament and the youngsters got medals and a t-shirt.”
Though three years have passed since the last Homeless World Cup tournament, Robert believes that the legacy of Glasgow 2016 continues to help change lives.
“I think the event had a huge impact. When you look at the crowds who were there - even considering the weather we had on some of the days - it gave the people in the stands a better insight into homelessness, that it’s not just those who are ex alcoholics or drug addicts but can affect anyone at any time, and that change of perspective has endured.”
What of that Street Soccer United team - have relationships endured too?
“After Glasgow 2016 a lot of the players moved on, a number of them into full-time work - one as a mechanic and one a full-time coach - and a few of them are at university now, doing really well,” he proudly relates. “It’s more difficult for me to keep up with them all because my new job keeps me so busy but some of the players still attend the drop-ins, they still have that opportunity.”
Talking of opportunities, having achieved so much already which direction does Robert hope to take in the future? As ever, the man has a plan!
“I’ve spoken to my managers and I’d love, in a year or so, to be looking after somebody in the position I’m in now, with me moving into a supervisory role for those delivering the programme in prisons.”
He aims, he makes the break and, once more it’s a goal which Robert is sure to score.
Street Soccer Scotland are our grassroots member in Scotland, find out more about their work and how they’re using football to change lives across the country.
Words: Isobel Irvine
Images: Anita Milas