Flying High Through Sport In the Military

Sport has long been of benefit to the wider military, but what of the people who serve – how has sport helped individuals achieve more?

A mainstay of service life since the Victorian era, sport helps shape service personnel to be the best they can be, it tests both mental and physical attributes.

In this series, we will look at how sport shapes members of the UK Armed Forces, and how it allows them to participate in events they could have only dreamed of were it not for life in uniform.

Squadron Leader Richard ‘Kinni’ Kinniburgh is a Royal Air Force, Air Traffic Controller.

As the Senior Air Traffic Controller at RAF Coningbsy, he is responsible for the management and leadership of the unit’s Air Traffic Controllers.

However, sporting achievements have enabled him to go from controlling aircraft to coaching in the FA Cup, via Barcelona.

Initially playing football for fun, Kinni soon found himself thrust into the position of Officer Commanding Football at RAF Shawbury.

It was the first taste of a football management role for the then 25-year-old Junior Officer.

“Football was mostly as a good excuse to get fit, I didn’t ever expect to play at Station level.”

To try and engage the players he roped in the help of local professional side, Shrewsbury Town - and within a short time, RAF Shawbury were also training with Tranmere Rovers.

Sport was allowing the players from the unit to train with dedicated professionals:

“We wanted to provide experiences for the players that they would remember forever”

By the time Kinni left Shawbury two years later, he had enrolled on a ‘Football Association Level 2 Course in Coaching Football’ - supported by the RAF FA, in conjunction with the Essex FA. He was the only military person taking part in the year-long course.

Posted to Salisbury, his nearest military football team was situated at MoD Boscombe Down. In a fate of coincidence the team was mostly made up of Air Traffic Controllers -  it enabled his first coaching role to be a far less daunting one.

With a Level 2 award soon under his belt coaching became a part of his everyday life, from on the field to in the tower – sport was benefiting both individual and service.

Afghanistan was Kinni’s next stop. In his downtime - and to keep focused for work - he undertook a Football Management Master’s Degree through the Johan Cruyff Institute for Sport in Barcelona.

“This course was my kind of degree. Hours of studying leadership in the game, business strategy and finance, marketing and finally psychology, all keeping me sane in the quiet hours away from my job in Kabul.”

“I had to visit Barcelona twice as part of the course, once to deliver my dissertation and secondly to graduate, receiving my Masters from Johan himself.”

Post-Afghanistan came with a promotion to Squadron Leader, and a 12-month tour of the Falkland Islands - where a chance interview on BFBS set his coaching path on a different trajectory.

“I was driving around the airfield ring road in the snow listening to BFBS. Dreaming of the sunshine that I would enjoy six months later during a tour as the Executive Officer in Gibraltar.”

“A Navy Petty Officer was being interviewed about his role as the National Manager for Gibraltar and how as a Scotsman he was feeling about taking Gibraltar to play against Scotland at Hampden Park.”

With that interview, Kinni could see there was potential for his coaching career to move upwards in an international direction.

Contact was made with the coaching team in Gibraltar and to his surprise on arrival in the country he was set the challenge of coaching the Under-19 national side.

Progression was becoming a habit; the next step was to aim for the UEFA B license – a qualification from the official governing body of European football. This was taken in conjunction with the Scottish Football Association.

Gibraltarian club football seemed the next logical step after the national side and soon Kinni found himself involved with second division side, Bruno’s Magpies.

A roller-coaster season ended with narrow defeat in the promotion play-offs.

The aim was to build upon that upset and reach the first division in the following season – however, service life meant that a posting back to the UK would take priority.

“The return to the UK was always going to be difficult and losing Brunos as such a key part of my life, (I thought) would be impossible to replace.”

Searching for the final hours to complete his UEFA B logbook - and hoping to fill his social life hole - Kinni approached Sleaford Town Football Club in Lincolnshire.

Very much in a relegation scrap from the United Counties League, survival was their only objective. 

Working with his coaching colleagues survival was indeed achieved.

The summer of 2018 saw a productive pre-season for the Greens and a lifelong ambition for Kinni to take part in the FA Cup, the oldest national football competition in the world

“It was a great privilege to coach Sleaford Town for my first taste of the FA Cup, but a cruel 92-minute winner sent us crashing out.”

Back in the UK Kinni also returned to RAF Football, with RAF Coningsby and it would be the Lincolnshire base that provided him with his first taste of silverware.

In the final of the RAF Cup - at Watford’s Vicarage Road - RAF Coningsby secured their first national cup competition for four years. A last-minute penalty ensured the celebrations carried on long into the night.  

“Sport in the military - whatever the type - gives so much to our culture, ethos and values. I hope to have continued experiences and success in the years to come.”