Copa90 met the Labour leader to discuss Arsène Wenger’s future, Arsenal’s hopes of winning the title and how this election could be reminiscent of 2005

When we read that Jeremy Corbyn had made a commitment to investing in grassroots football, we reached out to his team to see if the Labour leader would like to talk football to Copa90 about sport. He accepted our offer and, on the morning of the FA Cup final, he joined us at Hackney Marshes to chat football, Arsène Wenger and politics.

What brings you to Hackney Marshes?



This is the lung of London that survived the developers – mainly because it got flooded so much and that’s why it’s here. When I first came to London, this used to be fairly industrial and fairly grimy around here, but Hackney Marshes was that lung for people to play football and dream. There are pictures from around the 1930s when there would be 50 or 60 football matches going on, as far as the eye could see.



Unlike your rivals, you have very prominent policies about money in grassroots football. What made you take that decision?



I love football. I love sport as a whole. I am not brilliantly sporty, but I love watching it and think we’ve got to nurture the grassroots of football because the lesson for children of being able to go out and play, get muddy, win, lose, draw, whatever, is such a good thing for their character and so important.

I really admire the amateur coaches all over the country. They are people who give up a vast majority of their time, without getting anything for it, running amateur football clubs and amateur athletics clubs, because they believe in it and it is good for the kids. What we are going to do is take some money out from the Premier League clubs and put it here.

Five per cent of all TV rights profits would go to grassroots football…

Independently spent, because what we don’t want is just the Premier League clubs having all the money and controlling it when it goes into grassroots.



We have seen you in a Clapton T-shirt. Why are non-league and fan-owner clubs so important?



We live in a democracy, and democracy should apply in lots of things. It should also apply in what we do. If you think about football clubs, who actually pays for the club? It’s basically us when we go to a match, us when we pay a season ticket, us when we buy TV packages… That’s what’s really important about it.



Are you ‘Wenger in’ or ‘Wenger out’?



Wenger in. Wenger came to the club in 1996. He wasn’t particularly well known. He managed Grampus Eight before. Arsenal recruited him the year before and said to him: “Would you come and manage Arsenal?” What an amazing opportunity for any manager in the world. And do you know what he said? “Yes, but I must finish my contract with Grampus Eight first. I have given them my word that I would stay until the end of the season.” And he did. Then he came.

A few months later my boys and some other kids had been playing football in the park and, as we are going home, we see Arsène Wenger walking to the stadium carrying a box. The kids said: “Look, Arsène Wenger, Arsène Wenger!” And so we stopped and he put the box to hand and he just chatted to them about football. This is a man who is human.

I think you have to add up his achievements: the league wins, the Cup wins, the 20 years in the Champions League. I think he is the guy who has brought the club forward to a world status and we should recognise that.

I get really fed up with these people: Arsenal concede a corner in the first five minutes of a game and somebody says: “Wenger out! Wenger out!” Hang out a minute, it’s a corner, it’s five minutes into the game, get over it.

If you did not win the election, would you consider replacing Wenger as the next Arsenal manager?

I don’t normally bring my family into politics, but I have got a football coach son, so maybe we can do a job-share.

What do you think of your banner in The Kop?



Amazing. It was absolutely amazing.



How does it feel to see people supporting you in such surroundings?



I went to Wirrall Live, which is the music festival at Tranmere Rovers. Nobody knew I was coming. I appear on the stage to make my speech about football culture and music culture and people started chanting. When you are at the stage, you can’t actually hear everything that is going on. Then I’m looking at these guys chanting and I realise they are smiling, so I paused and realised what they were chanting. I was quite moved, actually.

Would a Labour victory be a bigger comeback than Istanbul?



We are coming up towards the 84th minute. We’ve got six minutes to go. We are not ahead, we are not even totally level, but we’ve got this massive bank of supporters behind us. We have the opposing team ahead of us, their supporters behind them and our supporters behind us. We’ve got the spirit from them, we’ve got the determination from them. 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, there is no extra time in elections. Ten o’clock on 8 June, polls close. Result, next day: watch out for it.



Top four for next season?



Well, of course Arsenal will be there. I think it’s gonna be Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs, Chelsea.



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