Out of the 3,500 professional footballers in the top four divisions of the men's football in England and Wales, only sixteen are of south Asian heritage
Here is quite a startling fact.
Yet over eight percent of the UK population are British Asians. Something does not quite add up.as many British Asian love their football and regularly support UK Teams every weekend.
So, this concerning statistic in this age of diversity is why the Professional Footballers’ Association are acting.
Spearheaded by Riz Rehman, the PFA’s player inclusion executive, they are leading a campaign to attract more kids from that background into the game and to help those few already attached contracted to make it.
Fewer than one percent of players of south Asian heritage are in an academy system – barely 100.
Asian Inclusion Mentoring Scheme
The scheme is known as Aims – the Asian Inclusion Mentoring Scheme – where support, guidance and expertise are offered by current professional players from south Asian heritage to the next generation attempting to come through.
Rehman has personal first-hand knowledge of the situation, as he played as a scholar for Brentford before a broken leg wrecked his career.
His brother Zesh remains the only south Asian player to have ever featured in a Premier League game and that was for Fulham 18 years ago. Zesh is now the under 18s coach at Portsmouth. In their day they had no one to turn to.
“We want to make their journeys easier, to give players and families a helping hand, and be that conduit between the club and the player, to fast-track their learning,” Rehman explains.
The most high-profile participant in Aims – the poster boy if you like – is 19-year-old Zidane Iqbal of Manchester United, who has Pakistani and Iraqi parentage and is proving to be an inspiration for aspiring Asian footballers who see him breaking down barriers. “Of course, I'd like to be a good role model,” Iqbal said in an interview earlier this year. “I see lots of people saying, 'Oh, you're a role model' and I try to take that on in everything I do.”
Rehman continues: “I have known Zidane since he was 15. He is one of those young players who has always jumped on zoom calls to talk to players. He talks about his experiences as a mentee and now as a mentor. He has always attended our face to face events, goes round giving fist pumps, having his picture taken. He never makes a fuss and is very humble and down to earth.”
Others in the scheme offering the benefit of their individual and invaluable experience to the nine to 16 age group and those aged 16-18 known as scholars, are Danny Batth, the Sunderland defender, Grimsby’s Otis Khan, Malvind Benning at Port Vale, and Neil Taylor of Middlesbrough. Between them they have played more than 2,000 first class games.
Manchester United player Zidane Iqbal is proving to be an inspiration for aspiring Asian footballers.
Practical sessions and open days have been rolled out at Arsenal, Blackburn, Aston Villa and Cardiff which have been attended by hundreds of youngsters and importantly their parents who gain a valuable insight into the workings of a top club, what a career pathway might look like and what it takes to make it in the ultra-competitive world of professional football. Most are the first generation born in the United Kingdom and are themselves passionate about the game.
Rehman says: “We show clubs the data we have collected which have led to the emerging talent days. There were none in the Arsenal academy system and their training ground at Hale End is in the heart of the East End.
“We collaborated with their scouts and held a massive recruitment drive in May which 120 attended. These are players who would normally never have been on the club’s radar.”
Just six percent
According to Sport England figures, six million under-18s play football. Of this number, six per cent are south Asian. The elite landscape consists of 15,000 players of whom 3,500 are professionals. Rehman would like eventually six per cent of that figure to be south Asians.
Over the past 18 months Rehman and his team have made every league club aware of the Aims campaign and provided information on how they can adapt to the needs of players from that heritage.
“Since 2010 I have been delivering workshops about supporting Muslim players and other needs of other players such as Hindus or Sikhs about for instance, vegetarian and Halal food.