London United launch their campaign for the capital city to be a host city at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Chelsea and England star Ashley Cole recalls the joy of kick-arounds on Hackney Marshes: "Some of my best early memories of playing football in a park were for my local Sunday team. The team was called Puma and we played at Hackney Marshes. I played alongside Ledley King and J Lloyd Samuel and we played against the likes of John Terry, and Bobby Zamora. It looks like that is a place where quite a few careers were started."

England captain John Terry has fond memories of his local park: "I lived in Barking as a youngster and right at the back of my house, literally just over the other side of the fence, was Newlands Park. That's where I played all of my football growing up. It was always me and my brother against our two next door neighbours, Danny and Billy. We used to pretend we were in the World Cup, and would be different teams each time."

Peter Crouch of Tottenham Hotspur and England is another star who developed his game on one of London's many park football pitches, this time in west London: "I used to play at Pitshanger Park, which was my local park as a kid. It was the best time for me, playing football with school friends. They are still my friends now. It is great to score goals in big stadiums but I had the most fun when I was playing in the park."

West Ham and England striker Carlton Cole points out the importance of today's youngsters having these London park spaces available to them: "I grew up in Croydon and remember when I was younger going to the park many times, kicking a ball about with my uncle, cousins and friends. I think it is very important to have somewhere to play. You hear so much about young people and children not having that much to do where they live or the facilities to do things, so parks and areas like this are important to have. For youngsters who want to play football professionally when they are older, parks are where they can practice their skills and learn."

Crouch's England and Spurs teammate Jermain Defoe also remembers his early footballing days: "When I first started playing it was at the back of my Nan's house in Canning Town, east London. There was a field I used to play on with a few of my cousins and my mates who lived round there. We would use anything as a goal. Sometimes it could just be trees if they weren't too far apart or jackets."

The 'Park Life' film is being released to coincide with England's last two World Cup qualifiers and can be viewed along with more videos at www.england2018bid.com