Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Shared goals can be game changers in diversity drive

Football body urged to help emerging Asian talent break new ground

Shared goals can be game changers in diversity drive
Stadiums have become less hostile to ethnic minority fans over time

THE power of sport is its compelling, unscripted drama.

But triumph can rarely have turned to disaster so quickly as when Pakistan turned a 556-run total into an innings defeat to England.


England’s football fans may want to join India and Pakistan to make cricket our national sport too. As records tumbled in Multan last week, Greece beat England 2-1 at Wembley. They could have scored more.

In emotional celebrations after the final whistle, the team dedicated this first ever win over England to teammate George Baldock, who had died aged just 31. The good-natured Greek fans were as likely to take the Tube back home across London as to head to the airport.

The defeat seems to have ended England’s caretaker manager Lee Carsley’s appetite to replace Gareth Southgate permanently. He prefers to return to managing the under-21 team, a crucial talent pipeline for the England team beyond the crucible of media pressure.

Before the match, the Football Association (FA) was thinking ahead, not just to a new England manager, but in unveiling its strategy for 2024 to 2028. The past four years saw much progress, despite a pandemic. England men’s team reached two European finals in a row. The Lionesses won the European trophy and reached a women’s World Cup final.

Lord Herman Ouseley

Higher hopes feel tantalisingly within reach. Both teams have a new Cup Final habit. I believe England’s men must be fated to win the 2026 World Cup. Sixty years on from 1966, three decades after starting to sing “30 years of hurt” and “football’s coming home” while hosting Euro 96, with a young team coming into their prime, a victory in North America feels almost too neatly scripted to come true.

The FA’s four-year strategy culminates with the UK nations and Ireland co-hosting Euro 2028 – an occasion with enormous reach and potential. ‘Inspiring positive change through football’ is the golden thread that the FA sees linking the power of major tournaments to inspire and connect with its broader vision for social change.

‘A game free from discrimination’ is another game-changing FA ambition by 2028. Lord Herman Ouseley was also warmly remembered in tributes at Wembley. The peer – cofounder of the Kick It Out anti-racism campaign three decades ago – died in early October.

For all the progress, new Kick It Out chief executive Samuel Okafor says “stubborn challenges” remain, emphasising accountability and data transparency to track progress on Asian players, black and female coaches and a football workforce that reflects our society. Reporting unacceptable behaviour – at the grassroots, in stadiums and online – matters to feel safe.

Yet the core point of kicking racism out was to pursue a shared goal – a national game where we can all feel that we belong.

The growing status of the women’s game helps that, though equal opportunities and status remain a long way off. ‘The Three Hijabis’ – Amna Abdullatif, Shaista Aziz and Huda Jawad – who have championed sport’s power for social change, pointed out at the Wembley launch contrasting strengths and weaknesses of the men’s and women’s game. Women’s football champions an inclusive culture – but with more to do to realise that vision across ethnic and faith groups.

Sunder Katwala

The parliament will legislate on football regulation. Minimum standards matter – to protect clubs from misgovernance, and places from losing clubs that mean so much locally.

Positive cultural change needs other catalysts too. A core theme of Huddersfield Town’s third annual Inclusion and Empowerment conference earlier this month was how to move beyond compliance to become pacesetters for change. I heard Charlton Athletic’s ambitious vision, to be top of the league for community connection, when watching their impressive league win over Birmingham at the Valley recently.

The year 2028 will offer an opportunity to reflect on the scale of the black legacy in English football, half a century after Viv Anderson became the first of over 100 black full England international players. A focus on thousands more ethnically diverse qualified coaches will seek to narrow the stark gulf between the black presence on and off the pitch.

The British Asian presence in football remains much more nascent. Asian fans of my generation did feel benefits from the visible black presence. A multi-ethnic England team did broaden what it meant to be English – even without south Asian players in the team yet. The culture in stadiums, for club and country, did become less hostile, then more welcoming, over time.

The FA will now need to set stretching and achievable benchmarks to ensure these four years do see the emerging British Asian contribution break new ground at all levels.

Sports lovers know that winning every game can never be possible. But an increasingly diverse society should place a high value on setting – and achieving – meaningful shared goals.

(The author is the director of British Future)

More For You

Is Gaza left behind in global peace efforts?

Displaced people from Beit Hanun in Gaza City last Tuesday (18)

Is Gaza left behind in global peace efforts?

SIR KEIR STARMER has been talking of deploying British peacekeeping troops between Ukraine and Russia. He has indicated other countries might also join in as part of the “coalition of the willing”.

President Trump has said he wishes to see an end to the killing in Ukraine (but not in Gaza).

Keep ReadingShow less
Eye Spy: Top stories from the world of entertainment
Sikandar

Eye Spy: Top stories from the world of entertainment

GOOD UK FILM

THE interesting-looking film Last Swim will be released on April 4. The British feature debut from London-born Sasha Nathwani had its world premiere in Berlin last year and was also screened at the London Film Festival. The coming-of-age drama, star ring model-turned-actress Deba Hekmat, explores late-teen angst, friendship, and empathy. Nath wani describes the film as “a love letter to London,” as the story is set entirely in the city.

Keep ReadingShow less
Comment: Reform split exposes the dangers of unchecked populist rhetoric

Reform UK's new MPs Richard Tice, Nigel Farage, Lee Anderson and Rupert Lowe pose during a presentation of their programme in London on July 5, 2024

Getty Images

Comment: Reform split exposes the dangers of unchecked populist rhetoric

IT took Nigel Farage 30 years to get elected as an MP until the voters of Clacton sent him to the Commons on his eighth attempt last summer. Having broken through by getting five Reform MPs, Farage has taken every opportunity to stoke the media hype in which supporters fantasise and his critics fear a populist wave could sweep him all the way into Downing Street next time. But there has been something of a reality check this month – with the new party splitting as relationships broke down between the leader and Rupert Lowe, the former Southampton FC chairman elected in Great Yarmouth.

The Farage-Lowe battle has many dimensions. It can be seen as a personality clash of political egos – which escalated after US billionaire businessman, Elon Musk, decided he preferred Lowe to Farage. It is an argument about Farage’s control of Reform’s structures – and the slow progress in giving party members any role. The Reform leadership says it is about personal conduct – even reporting Lowe to the police for alleged threats to party chair Zia Yusuf – but acted against Lowe only when he criticised the leader.

Keep ReadingShow less
Essence of Ramadan

Ramadan is a time for self-reflection and to become better human beings

Essence of Ramadan

THE word Ramadan conjures images of fasting, shared meals, and a sense of community, but there is a deeper, more profound purpose beneath the surface of this holy month for Muslims.

Ramadan is not just about abstaining from food and drink; it is a transformative journey of self-discovery, offering a chance to shed old habits and cultivate inner peace. It is a month of selfreflection, a time to become better human beings and reconnect with our values.

Keep ReadingShow less
Asian health workers paid
heavy price during Covid

The National Covid Memorial Wall on the Covid-19 Day of Reflection, marking five years since the start of the pandemic in London last Sunday (9)

Asian health workers paid heavy price during Covid

BEREAVED families and friends came together last Sunday (9) to remember the loss of loved ones as the UK marked five years since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Public memory is remarkably short; there was a time when people were prevented from even saying goodbye to their relatives as they died in hospital. To prevent contamination, their bodies were slipped into body bags for funerals where almost no one could come.

Keep ReadingShow less