Page 1 Arrow Page 1 Arrow aya bootroom camera check chevron-down-thinchevron-down fail hive-learning info linledin notice play thefa user verified

Our new South Asians in Football plan targeting improved representation in football

Thursday 30 Jan 2025

We have today published a new three-year plan that is specifically targeted at improving the representation of South Asians within English football.

Build, Connect, Support’ is an evolution of our previous Asian inclusion strategy, and it’s the first time that our organisation has published a plan which specifically focuses on making our game more accessible to the largest minority ethnic group in England.

It’s the result of our steps to collaborate with organisations from across English football over the past 12 months – including the Premier League, EFL, Kick It Out, Football Supporters’ Association, PFA and PGMOL, as well as wider stakeholders across the grassroots and professional game – to share best practice and develop key areas of focus.

Running until 2028, the new plan is one of the key deliverables of our organisation-wide four-year equality, diversity, and inclusion strategy, titled ‘A Game Free From Discrimination’, which sets out how we will continue to embrace the unique diversity of our country and use English football to inspire positive change.

More South Asian people than ever are currently playing, coaching and refereeing within our game. Within South Asian communities, over 11 per cent of adult males and over 15 per cent of adult females are participating in football, while five per cent of boys and over four per cent of girls aged between 5-15 years-old are regularly taking part in affiliated football.

Our new plan will help to ensure that the continued growth of these participation levels remains one of our key priorities, with new targets set to further increase the number of those playing, coaching and refereeing across the game over the next three years.

Targeting the areas under our influence and control – grassroots football; the National League and Women’s pyramid; coaching and talent ID; refereeing; and education and awareness – the five key aims of ‘Build, Connect, Support’ are to:

Raise awareness of the pathways into football across all areas of the game
Embed South Asian inclusion across grassroots football by working with regional organisations and County FAs
Develop opportunities to increase South Asian female participation across grassroots, talent, workforces and supporter groups
Create more engagement opportunities and communication interventions between The FA and South Asian communities
Present a holistic football-wide joint approach wherever possible, working closely with football bodies and key stakeholders

In recent years, our work in this area has included bringing thousands of people across South Asian Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Buddhist communities together through our faith events at Wembley Stadium; introducing mentoring programmes to develop future leaders from diverse backgrounds, including South Asians; increasing educational resources across our grassroots game; and working with key partners to increase representation and tackle discrimination.

You can learn more about our wider work in this area here, including details on our independent research conducted across South Asian communities in 2024 to better understand current sentiments on the ground.

Dal Singh Darroch, our head of diversity and inclusion strategic programmes, said: “Through our new ‘Build, Connect, Support’ plan, we aim to ensure that South Asian communities across the country have an increased awareness of – and access to – opportunities within our game. South Asians make up the largest minority group in England, and we want to build on great progress in recent years to grow representation across key areas of our game, including playing, coaching and refereeing. We’re committed to continuing our close work with South Asian communities to ensure that our game is better reflective of our modern society, and this plan will bring a clear focus to our work in this area for the next three years.” 

'Build, Connect, Support’ can be downloaded here

By Communications department