Building The South Asian Football Community
Akram, England
Goal Click and the Premier League Charitable Fund (PLCF) collaborated on a campaign to showcase the powerful impact of the Premier League and Professional Footballers’ Association (PL PFA) Community Fund.
Six individuals from Aston Villa Foundation, Palace for Life Foundation and Wolves Foundation have documented the activities made possible by the PL PFA Community Fund and the impact the programme has made on their personal lives. Akram is a coach with the Palace for Life Get Involved programme, with a goal to use the power of football to connect and contribute to the South Asian community.
My name is Akram. I am an 18-year-old Finance student at City, University of London with a Bengali background and I live in Croydon. I am a part-time Level 1 sessional coach for the Palace for Life Foundation. This means that after volunteering at community sessions for two years, I was honoured to have my Level 1 coaching qualification fully funded by The FA and now I lead the sessions. I have been involved with the Get Involved project run by the Palace for Life Foundation since its inception, as I was the first ever participant.
It all began with an after-school football club hosted by the Palace for Life Foundation at my secondary school Al-Khair. Hazmi, a coach and now my mentor, recognised my interest in football and approached me with the idea of working with the Asian community and possibly pursuing a career in coaching the sport in the future. They proposed an idea that appealed to me - to encourage the Asian community to get involved in football while also battling discrimination and identifying talent in the local area.
When my mentor introduced me to this project, I was very inquisitive about why it began and what aims and goals were to be achieved, which appealed to me as it matched goals that I had to encourage young footballers of South Asian heritage to get involved. I remember being the only person at the first-ever session, but word quickly spread about these community sessions, resulting in many people who were interested in being a part of this project.
I began as a volunteer for 2-3 years and have now become a coach working at community sessions, after-school clubs, and player development centres, as well as hosting tournaments and iftar events at both the Crystal Palace stadium and Crystal Palace Academy. With the Get Involved project, we give children a chance to showcase their talent and help them improve their football abilities.
I also host community iftars during Ramadan, public charity events, and my very own mosque league on Sunday night where mosques in south London come together and play each other in a league format.
What did you try to show with the photos? Was there any wider meaning with the photos?
The people in the photos range from my mentor, coaches and participants at Get Involved community sessions to participants at the mosque league and a ‘Play on the Pitch’ event at Selhurst Park.
The photos were mainly taken on the football pitch at community sessions on Tuesdays and Saturdays, homeschool sessions on Mondays, the ‘Play on the Pitch’ event, and the Sunday night mosque league.
‘Play on the Pitch’ was an event where participants from our community sessions were invited to Selhurst Park Stadium to play on the football pitch that the first team plays on in the Premier League. Boys and girls were all divided into their age groups and put into teams to play against each other in a tournament-style format.
The sessions demonstrate how inclusive this Get Involved project is and how it caters to all ages in the community. I wanted to show the story of a young participant who grows through the project and eventually becomes a coach.
What impact have any of these people had on you?
My mentor being by my side and constantly giving me advice on how to become a better coach, as well as praising me for my work, has boosted my confidence. Being able to coach young people has also allowed me to enhance my leadership skills and express my passion for the sport.
Why is football important to you and to your community?
Football is important to me as I not only use it as a form of physical exercise but also as an escapism. It allows me to clear my mind and get away from stress that I may have with university or work.
Football is significant in my community because it serves as a platform for social integration, encouraging interaction and cooperation among various groups of people. It provides a common ground for people from all walks of life to come together, celebrate successes, and support one another, fostering social cohesion within the community without making anyone feel judged.
How has participating in the Get Involved project created a sense of belonging for you? How does it make you feel?
Participating in Get Involved has given me a sense of belonging because the project aims to provide Asians with opportunities to participate in football. There is a significant amount of discrimination against Asians in football, and as an Asian myself, giving young people the opportunities that I never had makes me feel like I am in the right profession.
It makes me feel happy that I am able to give back to the community and help younger people achieve their footballing ambitions. What I like most is seeing a lot of young people attend the sessions and giving them the opportunity that I never had while growing up.
How has Get Involved helped engage and include the Asian community in football?
The Get Involved project has helped engage and include the Asian community in football, as it takes into consideration religious timings, festivities and religious calendar across the year. Moreover, it allows participants to share similar experiences as professional Asian footballers that we see today.
One example of how participants share similar experiences as professional Asian footballers is that some of our community session participants are Muslims. Muslims must fast for set periods of time during the month of Ramadan. Famous Muslim footballers such as Zidane Iqbal, who recently left Manchester United and Queens Park Rangers, and Pakistan international Harun Hamid are great examples to use because they have South Asian ancestry, are Muslim players who fast, and adjust their training sessions accordingly. Similarly, at our community sessions, we have participants with South Asian ancestry who are Muslims and fast during Ramadan and play for grassroots clubs. As a result, their training sessions must be adjusted slightly while also being effective.
One of my happiest memories is hosting Crystal Palace's second annual iftar event at the stadium with another colleague of mine. Doctor Zafar Iqbal, who is the head doctor for the first team, came down along with two first team Muslim players Cheick Doucouré and Naouirou Ahamada.
What impact has Crystal Palace and Get Involved had on you?
The Get Involved Project and Crystal Palace provided me with a platform to be able to participate at the sessions when I was younger, giving me the opportunity to develop my footballing ability and express myself on the pitch. They also introduced me to different avenues, for example the opportunity to become a coach.
It has allowed me to overcome many challenges, as I never thought that I would have the opportunity to become a football coach, especially due to my ethnicity. My future ambition is to gain all my coaching badges and make my way into elite football and become a coach at a big football club.
What do you think the future looks like in London and England? What do you want to change?
In terms of Asian inclusion in football, I believe Asian participation in grassroots teams is gradually increasing. Hopefully soon we will see more Asian footballers in academies as well as Asian managers in England's higher divisions.
