We were disappointed when we read comments from Amir Khan this week. The great boxer chose the moment of his retirement to attack young British Asians in sport – and footballers in particular. He said they give up too easily and resort to “excuses”. He said their diet is “awful” and consists mostly of curries. Perhaps these were throwaway comments, but they perpetuate a myth and need to be addressed.
We work together through the Asian Inclusion Mentoring Scheme (Aims) at the Professional Footballers’ Association. One of us is a lawyer, the other a former player and coach, but we both love football and would like to see more players with South Asian roots in the game. We also see the commitment of young players and their parents every week to make this a reality. At a recent Aims event at St George’s Park, we had 100 young elite players and 200 parents stay away from home for the night to raise awareness of what it takes to get the grade. These are players who spend all their free time training and parents who travel across the country to support it. Nobody apologizes here.
As for nutrition, it’s the same stuff we heard 30 years ago and a claim that has no empirical or scientific basis. A South Asian diet hasn’t stopped Pakistani players from dominating the endurance-intensive sport of squash or Indian stars from reaching the pinnacle of international cricket. Children in the UK, meanwhile, eat a similar diet to their black and white peers. Everyone loves pizza. The topic of better nutrition is something everyone should be thinking about, and at Aims we share nutritional information with parents from all cultures. Information and understanding are key.
The stats on South Asian representation in professional football speak for themselves: 7% of the population has 0.45% players in the game. Something has been going wrong for a long time and the main problem is structural discrimination. The architecture of football is such that you have to be part of a network to progress. If you look at the grassroots level, you have ‘feeder’ clubs: teams with ties to academies that pass on talent. If you don’t know who they are and you’re not involved in these networks, you can’t get into the system.
Until recently, South Asian parents were unfamiliar with the architecture and how the networks worked. We think that’s changing. The community has become part of the landscape and initiatives that have been taken are helping people to join. The number of South Asians within the system has increased. But there’s also a second hurdle once you’re in the system; the unconscious bias we all have that shapes how we perceive others.
Blackburn’s Dilan Markanday is among the growing number of South Asian role models in the game. Photo: Craig Galloway/ProSports/Shutterstock
We can see how many stereotypes exist about people from what the chairman of Middlesex County Cricket Club said after the Azeem Rafiq scandal. Mike O’Farrell told a parliamentary committee that “Football and rugby [is] much more attractive to the Afro-Caribbean community”, while Asian players do not “simultaneously commit themselves” to succeeding in cricket because they “prefer to go into other fields of education”. We heard similar things from former Football Association chairman Greg Clarke in comments that led to his resignation in 2020.
It feels like something has been lost, but Amir Khan made some extraordinary statements regarding Asian athletes at a retirement press conference yesterday, accusing them of using racism as an excuse why they haven’t had more successful careers.https :// t.co/TIThTNcFaR
— Sachin Nakrani (@SachinNakrani) May 17, 2022
That’s why Amir Khan’s comments are so discouraging: because they perpetuate stereotypes. They are images that are outdated because the image on site has changed. Football clubs want players who are talented and smart. We have players in the Aims program who are academics and are doing not only their BTecs but also A-levels.
Because of Brexit, football clubs have to say goodbye to recruiting young talent in Europe. They are more focused on the talent on their doorstep, and the South Asian community is poised to get involved. Families are now educated about the networks and ready to access them. From Hamza Choudhury and Dilan Markanday to Zidane Iqbal, the absence of role models is changing. There is this unconscious bias, but even that will go away over time. We’re not the only ones invested in the game and offering solutions. Things will change and we have no doubt that South Asian players will play a role in our nation’s contribution to the world’s most popular sport.
Riz Rehman is a former professional footballer and a player integration manager at the PFA. Makbool Javaid is a discrimination advocate and former Head of Legislative Services at the Racial Equality Commission.
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