FOOTBALL sessions for underprivileged youngsters in Oxford scaled back after funding came to an end. 

Global Smile FC was set up by Brendan Flanagan and Jeffrey Sackey two years ago, offering evening kickabouts to children for just £1.

But after an agreed three-year contract the funding from Oxford City Council has now finished.

The group and is now facing a dramatic scale-back in the coming months.

Mr Flanagan, of East Oxford, said: "The funding is stopping in July and there's nothing left for the kids."

At present Global Smile offers weekly sessions in Blackbird Leys Park, Wood Farm, Rose Hill and The Oxford Academy, but is now paring back to one two-hour event a week at the academy in Sandy Lane West – despite the fact that record numbers of children are now attending.

Mr Flanagan said: "The bulk of the kids that come every week are the same ones and really enjoy the sessions.

"Rose Hill is a really difficult area to engage with and we have about 15 coming every week - at the second-to-last Rose Hill session we had 26, the highest turnout we have ever had. Surely these are the kids you would want to work with in the summer, to keep them from getting into trouble?"

For the time being Global Smile will be laying on extra sessions at The Oxford Academy using an extra £1,300 granted by Blackbird Leys Parish Council.

It is understood that from September the city council will be paying for one session a week to be delivered.

An Oxford City Council spokesman said it was awarded £139,000 from Sport England for the three-year contract. 

They said: "The Sport England funding, and therefore the contract with Global Smile, came to an end on May 31. However, with some underspend on the scheme, the City Council worked hard to enable the underspend to be used to extend Global Smile’s contract for another two months. The last session will be on Friday (July 22).

"Discussions at the outset of the contract with Global Smile were also centred around how they could sustain these sessions at the end of the contract when the external funding had ended. The City Council is keen to extend these sessions where possible and we are currently in discussions with Global Smile about this."