We're marking South Asian Heritage Month by releasing a content series which highlights positive stories from Asian participants across the game and aims to inspire people within Asian communities to play a bigger part in English football on and off the pitch.
The six-part video series features players, coaches and match officials of Asian heritage discussing their inspirational journeys to date, including Hamza Choudhury (Leicester City), Zidane Iqbal (Manchester United), Maz Pacheco (West Ham United Women), Yan Dhanda (Swansea City), Layla Banaras (Birmingham City Women Academy), Azeem Amir (Para Lions), Riteesh Mishra (Assistant Manager of Charlton Athletic Women), Sabrina Dale (UEFA B accredited coach) and former referee Jarnail Singh, alongside his sons Sunny and Bhups Gill, who are current match officials.
And our England men’s senior manager Gareth Southgate also provides his view on Asian participation throughout.
The first video, featuring Maz Pacheco, Yan Dhanda and Gareth Southgate can be watched below:
The following five videos will be shared on England Football, FA, England, and Lionesses social media channels throughout South Asian Heritage Month, which ends on 17 August.
The series has been developed by Smoking Bear Productions in collaboration with award-winning British Asian filmmaker Rubika Shah, alongside producer Ed Gibbs.
This follows the update on our Asian inclusion strategy, Bringing Opportunities to Communities, which was shared earlier this year.
Launching in 2019, the strategy aims to ensure more people from Asian communities are part of English football both on and off the pitch, focusing on five pillars: The FA and its culture; pathways; grassroots football; women and girls; and community engagement.
We've also launched a central jobs platform, aiming to create greater access to roles available across English football, and to help organisations and clubs reach more diverse candidates from both within and outside of the game.
Any Football Leadership Diversity Code signatory or club can advertise appropriate vacancies on the platform, which can be found here.
