West Ham United and Luton Town have come together in east London for a special training session to showcase the strong work the two Premier League clubs are doing to engage with South Asian communities.
Ahead of Saturday’s top-flight fixture at London Stadium, the Hammers and Hatters joined forces to illustrate the role they are playing in their respective communities to engage with a demographic which is significantly underrepresented across football.
Between them, the two areas of east London (the Boroughs of Newham, Redbridge, Tower Hamlets, Barking & Dagenham and Havering) and the Borough of Luton are home to more than 400,000 people with South Asian heritage – a region which includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Maldives and Nepal.
Many thousands are passionate football fans, and both clubs have launched schemes to engage with those communities, provide pathways into football and, ultimately, to produce elite players and coaches of the future.
As part of those programmes, Under-10s teams representing West Ham’s Emerging Hammers programme and the Luton Town FC Community Trust were invited to the London Marathon Community Track at London Stadium for a special training session and match.
Led by West Ham Academy Link Mentor Rashid Abba and Luton Community Trust Football Development Manager Alex Wallace and colleague Shipaar Miah, joined by West Ham United Academy Coach Neal Akhtar, Emerging Hammers Volunteer Coaches Yasmin Hussain and Joynal Hussain, and Volunteer Coaches Adnan Ihtirum Syed-Hussain and Pharrell Ferguson.
The youngsters were inspired by the presence of Irons first-team pair Angelo Ogbonna and Freddie Potts and former defender Anton Ferdinand, who provided coaching tips and encouragement throughout the hour-long session.
Both West Ham United and Luton Town play a leading role in progressing the Premier League’s South Asian Action Plan, with recent figures from the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) showing signs of progress in the area.
The number of South Asian men's professional footballers in England and Wales has risen for the second year in a row and there are 22 professional players with South Asian heritage aged 17 or over in England's top four leagues this season, which is a 29% rise from 17 in 2022-23.
The overall percentage of South Asian professional players however remains low in England and Wales. There are around 5,000 professional footballers in the UK, with less than 1% with South Asian heritage. This compares with 9.3% of the overall UK population, who identify as Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh.
Ogbonna said: “I really wanted to get involved with this work because it is always important to give something back.
“It has been a pleasure to work with all the kids here, to help them to play football and to help instil in them the positive values that sport brings on and off the pitch.
“The community we are reaching out to here is a significant part of our community in East London and that is something that is really important to everyone at our Club.”
Potts added: “Some of the boys here have really impressed me a lot. Some of them are really technical and have got really good skills. They are better than I was at ten years old!”
Academy Link Mentor Abba said: “I think it’s great to see the boys enjoying themselves and playing with boys from other parts of the country.
“This is more about changing the narrative. The only way we are going to change the narrative around underrepresented communities is by seeing the boys play.
“The majority of the kids here have never been to a football club and have never seen a professional player in person. I think the boys see them as role models.
“This is how we change the narrative – we have got to see players playing for West Ham who look like them.
“That is going to inspire the next generation.”
Luton Football Development Manager Wallace said: “For us, it’s the start of a new programme we’re going to launch to increase South Asian participation and engagement in Luton, so this is a brilliant opportunity to bring a team down and mix in with West Ham, who have a very successful programme themselves.
“Kenilworth Road is in the middle of Bury Park in Luton, which is an area we are aiming to have much more engagement with as a Community Trust and hopefully we can support and find the under-represented talent that is there. It is about giving them the opportunity and creating that pathway for them.
“The goal is to have a player with South Asian heritage play for Luton Town’s first team and that’s why we’re launching our programme, to give opportunities to those who haven’t had them. That’s the dream.
“When you walk through the town centre now, the first shirt you see is Luton Town. It’s a very well-supported club and we’ve had a fantastic time over these past few years and long may that continue.”
West Ham United will host a South Asian Talent ID Festival at Frenford FC in Ilford on Friday 7 June and Friday 14 June 2024, with the best Under-10 and Under-11 players from grassroots clubs selected to represent the Club at a National Premier League Emerging Talent Festival at Loughborough University in August. They will also be invited to the Academy of Football to receive further coaching from the Academy Lead Phase Coaches.
