Ian Wright is visiting Pentonville Prison, just over a mile from Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium and their former ground of Highbury, where the striker became a Gunners legend.
The former England player is reflecting on his own experiences of prison, when, aged 19, he was jailed for 32 days in Chelmsford Prison in 1982 for failing to pay fines and driving without a licence.
“Football saved my life,” says 60-year-old Wright. “People say you’ve got to get yourself on the straight and narrow, but it’s very hard, especially when you’re in prison with nowhere to go.”
Wright is at Pentonville to support the Twinning Project, a charity partnering football clubs with prisons to offer inmates a Football Association-accredited coaching qualification.
He hands out medals to 15 inmates, all graduates of a coaching course aimed at reducing reoffending.
Since 2018 the charity has paired professional teams with local prisons. The scheme, involves Chelsea, Manchester United and Everton among others, has run classes for almost 2,500 inmates.
Twinning Project founder is former Arsenal co-owner and vice-chairman David Dein, who signed Wright from Crystal Palace in 1991.
“We’ve now got 15 guys with a level one coaching badge,” says Dein. “Hopefully when they come out they can progress.
“The key thing is every time we can stop an offender reoffending, the tax payer saves £50,000.”
It is beginning to work – with a number of inmates completing the course and set to take-up football coaching upon release.
