An argument
Football clubs must have money to burn. How else
to explain the fact that they fail to appeal to a whole section of the local population
who happen to live near their grounds? As far as I can see, these are not people inclined
to like sport less than you or me. It must be that there is something about the game that
puts them off, perhaps something they suspect they will not like in the atmosphere, or a
lack of people they can identify with on the pitch. To exclude local people from football
negates the club’s role as one of the cornerstones of the local community,
particularly in a town like Burnley where there are not many focal points. But to include
these people wouldn’t just be an extension of the club's role in the community, it
would also make sound business sense. Can any club turn down such a money making
opportunity?
The subject I broach here is the lack of involvement of the Asian
community in football. That community forms a significant sector of the population in a
number of football towns, such as Bolton, Bradford, Luton, Watford and Burnley. In such
towns they get all the problems of living near a football club, like noise, crowds,
traffic disruption, but none of the benefits.
It isn’t just the invisibility of the Asian population in the
stands that is the problem. There are also no Asian players strutting their stuff on the
pitch. It seems clear to me that the two problems go together, and that to address either
one would bring changes in the other. Asian people might be more likely to go to games if
they had Asian players to watch. Asian players might feel more encouraged to push for
places at professional clubs if they knew there would be a less hostile crowd.
If Asian players came into professional football tomorrow, the
abuse from the crowd would be predictable, if none the less sickening for it. There is the
obvious parallel of black players in the 70s and 80s. While there is still much progress
to be made to the attitudes of some sections of the crowd, there is now nothing remarkable
about the presence of black players in the game. All the milestones have been passed.
Black players play for England, have captained England, are now nothing out of the
ordinary at former all white strongholds such as the north east and Merseyside clubs. Even
Blackburn have one or two. Abuse of black players still goes on at Burnley, even of our
own. I always felt John Francis got more stick than a white lad would have, rather like
John Barnes did for England, and I was once present at a furious argument between two fans
after one had repeatedly racially abused Paul Mahorn. Kurt Nogan, I noticed, only became a
"black bastard" after he scored against us for Preston.
Burnley are a bit behind the times, though. The next and most
important step in the humanisation of football is happening at inner city clubs in areas
with a large black population, such as at Arsenal, where black people are beginning to
attend in numbers. It’s easy to see how this makes racial abuse less palatable. One
might become less inclined to indulge in racial abuse when half of the team you support
happen to be black. Discretion is advisable when several of the people sat around you are
that same colour.
Couldn’t it work the same way for clubs from areas with a
large Asian population? Clubs should reach out to these parts of the community and try
their hardest to lure them in. Whenever the issue arises of why clubs are not doing this,
clubs usually answer that these people are not interested in football, anyway. This seems
to me a rather self-fulfilling prophecy: you have to try to sell before you know if people
want to buy. Anyway, Asian kids are interested in football. How could they not be? There
is no special eastern gene which enables them to resist the all consuming hype of
football. The trick is to interest them in Burnley. Why should this generation of
potential support be left alone to grow up following the fortunes of Man Utd from a
distance? I know of a Leyton school where many of the kids are Asian. Last year Orient
handed out free tickets for the rest of the season. Beat that.
If I see a group of kids playing football in the streets, it is
usually a group of Asian kids. Football people often complain that kids don’t play
these days, that they sit in doors and play computer games instead. When they say this,
they mean white kids. Of course, this gives the lie to the idea that kids aren’t
interested in the game. Apologists for the status quo tirelessly assert that religion
prevents involvement. This is, of course, nonsense. Two of the largest Asian countries in
the world, one officially Hindu, one officially Moslem, have first class cricket teams. If
religion doesn’t prevent involvement in one sport then it does not in any. Cricket is
not holier than football. A report published a couple of years ago, Asians Can’t
Play Football exploded these lazy myths. Asians want to play. The problem is that they
are excluded from amateur teams, or, when in them, subjected to outrageous abuse. The
solution to this was to set up Asian leagues, where Asian people could enjoy playing
without all of the crap that goes with it. This is fine, but ambitious players playing in
these leagues will live a life of frustration, for scouts never go and watch these games.
Scouts go to watch games in conventional leagues, and even if they saw an Asian league
game would presumably not rate a player until they had seen him in action against
established league opposition. Thus lazy scouts are able to say that of course there is no
colour bar, and of course Asian players would be taken on, but they have never seen any
good enough: another self-fulfilling prophecy. This voluntary apartheid is therefore
ultimately self defeating.
We are often presented with a stereotype of pushy parents, wanting
their kids to go on to become doctors rather than get embroiled in the grubby world of
football. Where such views exist, they may be based on fears of racism. Yet such views are
not really sustainable given the ubiquitous knowledge of the immense wealth football as a
career has to offer. I know of cases in East London schools where would-be footballers
have sometimes have to deal with parental opposition, but often these days a compromise is
reached, and A levels are pursued alongside football practice to give something to fall
back on. In most cases, while parental reluctance may have been a factor in the past, it
is less so now.
When all other points are conceded, football types say that Asian
players just don't have the build for the game, that they are too short, too slightly
built to stand the rigours of the modern game. Even if one accepts this stereotyping of a
wholly diverse community, it is easy to pull apart such arrant nonsense, for it is nothing
more than exactly the same things that were used to legitimise racism against blacks in
the 70s and 80s. It was said then that black players were not up to the physical demands
of the modern game. There are any number of fearsome black cloggers and quite terrible
players around now to disprove that argument. In any case, us Clarets have known one of
two quite extraordinary shortarse players over the years, from Flynn to Heath. In a
country where Juninho and Zola both shone, I think we can take it as read that good
players don't have to be tall. A few more sounds like just what football needs.
There is a huge appetite in the Asian community to watch Asian
players. Bradford City, which has made more progress in this direction than anyone else,
staged Asian games in front of large crowds. Once the players are there, the crowds will
come to watch them, and then the initial gauntlet of abuse these players will have to take
will die down.
The move to rid football of its ugly racism is often jumbled up
with the view that the game is becoming the preserve of a wealthy, educated, middle class,
which it is. I get utterly disheartened at the way football has sold its true supporters
down the river in the short term cash dash. I like terraces, standing in the same place
every week, admission all can afford, regular attendance, atmosphere, support and songs. I
find it hard to get nostalgic about racism, though. I can’t see how racism has to be
taken as part of this package. I think we can disentangle it from the nostalgia. There are
lots of things wrong with football. They are being replaced by a lot of other wrong
things.
We shouldn’t just involve the Asian diaspora in football
because it’s right; we should also do it because it makes business sense. In a world
where the gap between the many and the few is growing, clubs like ours can’t compete
with the financial resources of a few big clubs. We cannot buy players to get us into the
premier league. We need to make the most of other resources, work out what gives us an
edge over other clubs. With potentially a large pool of free Asian players to draw on, we
have an advantage few can match. With a potential support to see these players in action,
we have an opportunity to increase revenues. The first club that sees this will be
visionary. They will be rather like West Brom were with black players, and take those
never given a chance because of the colour of their skin.
The community therefore represent both a duty and an opportunity. A
significant sector of that community is being squandered. The first club to spot this
opportunity will have the others kicking themselves.
I look forward to a future in which Asian people are involved in
our game. Then it can be truly said to be the national game, encompassing all parts of
this diverse nation, except for a few insignificant rugby league strongholds in towns
football forgot. That’s my hope, anyway. Could it happen?
