Exploring the History of Community Football in Leicester

With thanks to National Lottery players and the National Lottery Heritage Fund, we worked with Leicester Nirvana Football Club, including their players, elders and local community, to collect and share their stories of being a part of the club now and in the past.

Together, we created a documentary, exhibition, podcast series and archive to celebrate the club’s unique history and share it with people across Leicester now and in the future.

What we did with Passing It On

Passing it On focused on the history and heritage of the Leicester Nirvana FC as a community football club driven by empowering its young people and its communities, championing inclusion, equality and diversity.

Back in March 2025, the project partners reached out to members of the grassroots football club, past and present, to take part in special events to record their stories and memories of being a club member and what it meant to them. We reached out to members of all ages, including founder members involved in the club right from its beginning back in the early 1970s.

In total, 61 members shared their stories, images and memories, which have been collated into:

• a digital and oral archive of the club’s past
• a photographic exhibition presented at Art Reach’s Re/action Festival in July 2025, and
• a short documentary film capturing the journey of the project and key moments of the club’s history

Research sessions with young members of the club were run by experienced historic researcher Tara Munroe, CEO and Founder of Opal 22 Arts and Edutainment. These were highly successful, with all participants learning something new about Leicester Nirvana Football Club and Leicester’s recent history, and crucially, enjoying themselves!

What we uncovered

We reached out to players past and present, from all backgrounds, ages and walks of life. We heard about how the club’s history and the personal stories of the members track many aspects of Leicester’s complex social and political climate playing out in, and from, the 1970s.

This exploration into the heritage of Leicester Nirvana FC captured stories that showed it was and is more than just a football club to its members. It explored how a community of people and place was born out of this club, and it showed how the club contributed towards the resilience of a community that often met with racism, intolerance and challenging social and political attitudes on and off the pitch, since the club was formed.

Leicester Nirvana FC’s roots can be traced back to the Red Star project in the early 1970s. The Red Star youth and football club actively stood up to racism and intolerance encountered in the county. Seen as an important activist in the community, Red Star supported and encouraged its members to be more aware of social and political issues that affected them, question policies and challenge racist narratives, empowering them to advocate for themselves and others.

Members today spoke with pride about how its football club had been strong and resilient in the face of adversity, and how the club has stayed true to its values of empowering all young people and the wider community, welcoming all to be part of one of the city’s most diverse football clubs.

Sharing the story

The Exhibition

An outdoor photographic exhibition shared the stories and images of the founders, former and current members of the club, which was presented at Art Reach’s outdoor Re/action Festival in July 2025.

The pictures featured were taken by Dr Denise Maxwell from Lensi Photography, who photographed people in various locations relating to the club’s history. Players, past and present, posed alone or with family, in some cases showing three generations of Nirvana FC players.

Players were captured at Martin Street playing fields – a small patch of grass where the club had originated. Elder club members—many who hadn’t seen each other for many years—were reunited in the old sports hall of the building in which Red Star had become a youth group (which some of them had attended when it was Moat Boys’ School in the 1960’s and 1970’s). Lensi Photography captured moments of banter and playfulness as if they were children again.

Across the weekend, the exhibition attracted 500 people, with over 5000 passers-by who saw the exhibition and display on Leicester’s busy city pedestrian way, Humberstone Gate.

The Documentary and Podcasts

A short documentary film, produced by Good People Create, explored club members’ relationship with the club over the years, from its foundations as Red Star youth group in Highfields to its current location in Hamilton. The club was described as a “family”, a “safe space” where everyone is equal and everyone has a voice. Ex-players were open and vulnerable in their interviews – many detailing distressing incidents in which they were subjected to racism on and off the football pitch when playing games in other areas of the county.

A special podcast series, produced with support from HQ Familiar, captured some of the special moments where founder members were brought together to share their memories for the first time in decades.

This work is licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0

This work is licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0

What’s next?

Passing It On has shared just how special and important the history and story of Nirvana FC is to the city of Leicester – especially considering Leicester being now one of the UK’s ‘super-diverse’ cities.

Going beyond football, this project saw how the club has been a space for inclusion, and has been the family and community for many of its members, and how it will continue to be so for generations to come.

With the archive now held by Nirvana FC, it is theirs to continually update, celebrate and reminisce, serving as a constant reminder of those who came before them and paved the way for inclusionary football. We hope that the narrative of how Nirvana FC nurtured inclusion and challenged adversity through its work and in the community is something on which we can all reflect and learn from still today.

Thank you

Thank you to all the partners and supporters who made this project possible:

• Ivan Liburd and all the players, founders and coaches at Nirvana FC
• Tara Munroe, Opal 22 Arts and Edutainment
• Fraser Youngson, Good People Create
• Dr Denise Maxwell, Lensi Photography

Thank you to the National Lottery players who helped fund the project through the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Download the Passing It On HLF Acknowledgement report here.