[Football] British South Asians and football

[The Grockle]

I've just watched a friends video online of his Sunday league team taking on a team of predominately British Asians from West London.

Nothing particularly remarkable in this but it got me thinking, why are British South Asians so poorly represented in the professional game?

A quick Google search says there are something like 5 million people in the UK with South Asian heritage yet only around 20 of the 4000 professional footballers in the UK are from this group. Just seems crazy to me.

 

[StonehamPark]

Imo, Asian (South and East) families and parents generally direct their children into more academic-type after school activities starting from a very young age, with a higher focus on academics, grades, music, etc.

For us working class yoghurt tops, we'd often be lucky if our parents could afford us a pair of new football boots, and then chuck us outdoors all summer long. i.e. I think our family cultures are drastically different in regards to how we spend our free time outside of school as youngsters.

Also, I think football has been a much bigger part of our (British) culture for far longer than it has been anywhere in Asia.

Interesting question and theorycrafting exercise.

 

[Invicta]

I've just watched a friends video online of his Sunday league team taking on a team of predominately British Asians from West London.

Nothing particularly remarkable in this but it got me thinking, why are British South Asians so poorly represented in the professional game?

A quick Google search says there are something like 5 million people in the UK with South Asian heritage yet only around 20 of the 4000 professional footballers in the UK are from this group. Just seems crazy to me.

Read an article a while back that suggested local league football is absolutely dieing on Saturdays and Sunday's yet unorganised games flourish in many areas between groups without access to such leagues. They don't have the infrastructure to join leagues which is pretty time consuming and driven by rules, regulations and committees, which anyone whose ever been involved in running a team will recognise.

 

[AZ Gull]

We have a couple coming through our youth system.

Layth Gulzar (this from the Guardian's Next Generation article):-

Sahil Bashir

 

[Jackthelad]

It's getting better, but I'm going to be controversial and add racism to the other factors. I do think there is ethnic/racial stereotyping that goes on in scouting at youth level.

 

[Ⓩ-Ⓐ-Ⓜ-Ⓞ-Ⓡ-Ⓐ]

I think it's changing, historically those communities are cricket mad but as 2nd, 3rd generations grow up in the UK there is a shift to football