Asians in football

Dan Pope, Club Website editor

Every weekend, parks and playing fields across the UK play host to a mass celebration of our national sport. Like no other social vehicle, football at grassroots level football brings together people from all walks of life, cultures, races and backgrounds. It is only as you move up the football ladder that things start to change, particularly if you are a member of the Asian community.

At the time of the 2001 census there were over 2.3 million Asian or British Asian people living in the UK, some 4% of the total population. Hundreds of thousands of Asian footballers turn out to play and watch football across the country every week, yet only seven British Asian players earn their living in the professional game today.

This statistic speaks for itself, as do the results of a survey conducted by the Commission for Racial Equality in 2004, which identified just 10 Asian players at Premier League academies - just 0.8 per cent of the total figure. In the five years that have elapsed since, this figure is not believed to have changed greatly.

So what are the main reasons behind this massive under-representation of British Asians in the professional game? Piarra Powar - pictured below - is Director of Kick It Out, football’s equality and inclusion campaign. He told Club Website: “The reasons are quite complicated but, at the same time, there are some very simple issues at the core of that reasoning. Unfortunately it is about stereotyping. We are all stereotyped. We are all perceived in a certain way.”

Popular myths concerning Asian footballers include a belief that they like cricket more than football and that they are not strong enough to compete in the professional game.

Zesh Rehman, one of the seven current British Asian professionals, had to deal with these sterotypes when he was growing up. “I faced a lot of them,” he told Club Website. “Things such as [Asian kids] being scared of the weather or having the wrong diet. I don’t know where they come from but the more people hear them, they just jump on the bandwagon and assume they are right. It’s creating another hurdle that just shouldn’t be there."

Organisations such as Kick It Out and the Asian Football Network, amongst others, have been working hard to eradicate such attitudes but, as with all stereotypes, these are often entrenched and, by definition, paint a whole group of people in a particular light.

“One of the problems in football is that the Asian community is seen as one that doesn’t play football and doesn’t play football at the highest level," says Powar.

“What's more, the key people who are responsible for identifying talent that feed into professional clubs I think hold those views.

"Ultimately I think there is a sense [from the clubs] that getting an Asian player on board might be new - it would be untried, untested, so it may bring problems that the club or academy can’t deal with.”

Such factors could well hold the key to whether or not a player is selected by a professional club, particularly when making the marginal calls that regularly make or break opportunities.

“The margins between being selected to play professional football and not being selected are tiny” says Powar. “Often there will be players who have exactly the same ability but luck is on someone’s side in one way or another. Perhaps they are playing in a position where a club is running short, maybe someone sees something in them, so many of these subjective things are just part and parcel of the selection process.”

“We need to understand that if there are three players in front of a coach or an academy - one white, one black or mixed race and one Asian - then it is the Asian player who in most circumstances will be the one overlooked.

“That’s not necessarily bald prejudice. It’s as much about sticking with the safe option, championing the player where one feels that there might be more progress to be made, where one knows that there are others like him who have achieved. I think that’s a real part and parcel of the problem that we face. It’s complicated.”

So there are clearly issues that need to be addressed within the scouting and decision making network at professional clubs, but the problem can not be laid solely at their doorstep.

Rehman - pictured right - believes that a lack of role models for Asian kids to look up to plays a big part.

Whilst the defender, a role model himself, admits that there is already "lots being done" to address the issue, he believes that the number of British Asians involved in the game could be increased by "raising the profile of British Asian players just a little bit more, so it reaches out to all communities across the country."

One can see where he is coming from. Most football fans would have heard of Sunderland’s Michael Chopra - currently on loan at Cardiff - and many would have head of Rehman himself, once of Fulham and now on loan from QPR to Bradford City, but the other British Asian professionals - Netan Sansara, Rikki Baines, Anwar Uddin, Aman Verma and Adnan Ahmed - are only really known within the League One and Two circles where they ply their trade.

Asian football in the UK would no doubt benefit from a shot in the arm similar to the effect that Monty Panesar has had in cricket - someone to grab the limelight through their achievements on the big stage, helped out by a bubbly on-field persona and able to attract new swathes of young Asians into the game.

This presents a Catch 22 kind of problem, however. Unfortunately there is no alchemy that can just create new role models at the drop of a hat. These people need to be discovered and nurtured using the current system before they can become role models to others, which brings us back to where we began.

One group of people trying to address the issue is the National Asians in Football Forum. Formed in 2004 and supported by Kick It Out, the group brings together key figures from across the Asian football community with the aim of addressing the community’s under-representation as players, fans and administrators within the game.

The group’s 2005 report, entitled ‘Asians Can Play Football’, outlined their determination to chart a new course to increase opportunities for Asians in the game, to highlight the progress of developing football in the community and also to comment on the barriers that continued to restrict progress.

These barriers had led to a ‘wasted decade’ - the subtitle of the report - that had passed since the ironically titled ‘Asians Can’t Play Football’ first brought the issue to the football community’s conscience in 1996.

Having been dormant for the last 18 months, the forum re-convened at the House of Commons in March to add some fresh impetus to the agenda for change.

The group aims to look at how the Asian community engage with governing bodies and the game. Made up of a cross-section of the Asian football community from the grassroots to the professional game, it aims to represent collective views and issues facing Asians in football and look at how barriers can be overcome.

Before any lobbying of the game’s governing bodies can re-commence, the initial March meeting provided an opportunity for attendees to re-establish connections or make new ones within the community.

It also provided a platform for sharing best practice in the clubs and leagues represented - anything from developing coaching strategies, finding ways to engage Asian kids and their parents, to nurturing links between the game’s grassroots and professional bodies, including professional clubs and the Football Association.

In a quick round the table discussion, the stories shared gave a clear indication of the amount of work being done at grassroots level by well qualified coaches and development officers right the way down to the players themselves. I wondered, therefore, how significantly things had moved on in the four years since the forum published ‘Asians Can Play Football’?

“At grassroots level we are getting some positive developments” says Powar, a member of the group since it began. “There are individuals who are very positive, who understand the equality and diversity agenda, but there are others stuck in a mindset which is outdated and others whom don’t have much experience of minority groups - it’s those who we need to influence and make sure that there are training packages and things out there for them to increase their understanding.”

“[However], I think we have moved on. We have a more coherent approach, particularly at grassroots level, to develop grassroots clubs. There are a number of clubs now who are beginning to understand the need to develop themselves in terms of the facilities that they have and upgrading those facilities.

"There are other clubs who understand the importance of coaching and those who understand the importance of working with young kids, not just adults - those 16 plus who are playing purely for recreational purposes. So in that sense, yes - there has been progress.”

As Powar points out, there is a collection of expertise and experience in the National Asians in Football Forum that must be seized to help drive the change within the game. Among these are coaches of two of the most successful Asians teams in the country: Butch Fazal - Head Coach at Luton United FC and Chairman of the Forum - is a UEFA ‘B’ licensed coach, while Pav Singh is going on to take his UEFA ‘A’ licence.

Singh, now a member of the West Riding FA, has been heavily involved with Bradford’s Albion Sports, the first Asian club - and the first ever side from Bradford - to reach the final of the national FA Sunday Cup. He also works as a Black and Minority Ethnic - BME - coach at Bradford City, where he is looking at the club’s relationship with the local community and regional coaching academy, while trying to influence other people to buy into the club’s initiatives.

The work at Bradford city is representative of strengthening links between the Asian community and professional clubs across the country. It makes both footballing and commercial sense that football clubs with a sizeable Asian community on their doorstep should build links with that community, and football clubs rarely miss a trick these days. A successful local Asian player would prove a positive step for any club with a strong Asian fan base, both commercially as well as on the pitch.

According to Powar, however, the “sense of longing and goodwill” shown by club chairmen that he knows doesn’t always “translate into real practice that will bring about an Asian professional footballer.”

Some clubs already have successful schemes in place, however, including West Ham United, whose Asians in Football project “assists local Asian people to gain access to football and benefit from specific levels of participation”.

Chelsea have this week launched a campaign to search for young Asian football stars of the future. The Premier League club has teamed up with the FA, Kick it Out and the Asian Media Group to launch ‘Search for an Asian Soccer Star’.

Trials will be held for youngsters from Asian backgrounds during the May Bank Holiday, with the most talented players being offered a three-day residential trial at the club's world class Academy.

Chelsea ambassador and former England star Graeme Le Saux said: “We realise that there is a lack of representation of players from Asian backgrounds within the game and we hope that the competition will help inspire Asian youngsters.

“We want to show that race is no barrier to joining our club and that opportunities for Asian players do exist. We are proud of the religious and racial diversity at Chelsea and it is important that all clubs share our ambition that players should only be judged on their talent and their potential.”

Although not usually supportive of ‘talent contests’ as such, Kick It Out also welcomed the initiative. “We support this project for a number of reasons,” Powar said.

“The biggest of these is that for Chelsea to identify the gap that exists [regarding the number of Asian players in the game] and then be very clear about their position - i.e. that the talent is out there, but we haven’t got to it yet - that is a very positive move for one of our leading clubs. So it is beholden to us to support it.”

“I think it’s good to have the issue being talked about and people trying solutions, even if they might not be the perfect or most rounded way of doing it. We need people trying different things to tackle the issue.”

So things are moving forward in the grassroots game and at professional level, albeit slowly. Seven professional players is not many, but it is more than ever before and things are moving in the right direction throughout the game.

“Year on year we are finding younger people involved in football development, particularly in the professional game” says Powar.

“These people carry the right sort of attitudes [to developing young Asian talent], so things are changing all the time.”

I wonder how Powar might view success over the next few years. Are there any markers or milestones that he would like to see reached?

“I think we’d say that it’s more than having seven professional footballers, but I don’t think we should say it needs 30 players, or 15 [to be seen as a success], I think that would be the wrong way to judge it.

"Ultimately we need to take a step back and look at the broader picture in a few years time. Certainly we want to see an increase in the number of professional players and see more young players coming through the system from the next generation, but we also hope for progress to be evident in the sense of how the game is taking Asian participation seriously.”

So specific numbers are not necessarily the most important thing, but an obvious progression is required in the culture football community and how it views Asian footballers.

If the titles of the National Asians in Football Forum’s reports are to be seen as a good yardstick, then the prevailing mood of the Asian football community can be measured by their titles. 1996’s ironic ‘Asians Can’t Play Football’ summed up the frustration felt by the community at the time, whereas a decade later a reminder was still needed to those in the game that ‘Asians Can Play Football’.

With so much good work being done throughout the Asian football community and links being formed and strengthened with the professional game lets hope that, if the Forum happen to publish another report a further decade on, that this time it may this time be called with good reason ‘Asians Do Play Football’.

For more information on the issue of Asians in football, visit www.kickitout.org.