Acres and acres of soccer (football) at Hackney Marsh

Hackney Marshes is an area of grassland on the western (Middlesex) bank of the River Lee in the London Borough of Hackney. It was incorporated into the Lee Valley Park in 1967. It was originally a true marsh, but was extensively drained from Medieval times, and rubble was dumped here from buildings damaged by air raids during World War II.

Today the marshes provide many pleasant walks, in reach of the inner city, but the most famous use of Hackney Marshes is for Sunday league football, with 88 full-size football pitches marked out. On a typical Sunday, over 100 matches are played by amateur teams in several local leagues. This led in 2006 to a dispute between London Borough of Hackney and Nike, Inc. over the company's use of the borough logo on their sportswear. The dispute was settled with payment of £300,000 going to support local youth sports groups.