Yan Dhanda: I never let racist abuse affect me, says Swansea City midfielder
Yan Dhanda proves his racist abusers wrong every time he steps onto a football pitch.
Dhanda is coming of age at Swansea City, thriving in a team chasing promotion to the Premier League.
With each accomplished performance, the 21-year-old sticks two fingers up at those who told him he would not make the professional game because of his British Asian background.
“When I was young I got a lot of racism, being Asian, probably because I was better than other kids,” Dhanda said.
“I got a lot of kids saying ‘you should be doing this job or should be doing that’, or ‘you’re not going to make it – you’re Asian’.
“There were obviously a lot worse words than that, but I am not going to say them.”
Dhanda, a former England Under-17 international who hails from the West Midlands, is one of only 10 British Asians among around 4,000 professional footballers in the United Kingdom.
He says the support of his mother Zoe, who is English, and father Jaz, who was born in England to Indian parents, was key in helping him deal with abuse he faced as a child.
“I think because I had so much self-belief and I knew I was better than everyone, I never let it affect me,” Dhanda said.
“But I can see it affecting other kids who don’t have the backing of their parents, or don’t have the self-belief I had or the relationship with their dad that I had.
“My dad would always say ‘you are better than them – don’t let it get to you and we’ll see where they are and where you are in the future’.”
Dhanda spent five years in Liverpool’s academy before moving to Swansea in search of first-team football in 2018.
He has had to be patient – he has made 30 appearances to date – but has turned a corner in recent weeks and now looks a player capable of nailing down a place in Swansea’s side.
Away from the training ground, Dhanda’s background comes up most days.
“On social media I get a lot of messages with people asking for advice,” he said.
“They want to become footballers, how do they do it, or they are proud of me and what I have done.
“Because I hear it so often, I am so aware of the lack of Asians in football. There’s no point sugar-coating it and saying it’s fine because it’s not.
“I am quite passionate about it, that things need to change and Asian kids need to get more opportunities and not get overlooked.”
Dhanda is delighted to be viewed as a role model.
“I am so proud of where I am from and my family’s background,” he added.
“I want to be the first person of Asian background to do great things.
“The lack of Asian players now – it can’t get any worse.
“But the number of Asian kids I know are playing football and are really good – they are going to be coming through in the next few years.”
Dhanda has long stood out as a gifted attacking midfielder, but has shown of late that he can cope with the physical demands of the Championship – and believes his progress could help others.
“I think a lot of Asian kids, because there are not a lot of professionals, are stereotyped as not strong enough,” Dhanda said.
“I think with the right coaching and with someone believing in them, anyone can do anything – no matter where you are from, what race you are and what background you are.
“Asian kids need the same opportunity as everyone else. They need to be given a chance.”
A long-standing problem “getting worse”
Research released today suggests there is plenty of work to be done before British Asians are properly represented in professional football.
A national poll of more than 2,000 people was commissioned by athlete management company Beyond Entertainment and the Football Supporters’ Association (FSA), while there was also an FSA survey of 500 football fans.
Among the findings of the surveys are:
- Less than a third of people believed the football industry was doing enough to ensure better representation of British Asians in the professional game. 29.1% believed the industry was doing enough.
- 13% felt racism towards British Asians was treated seriously enough by the football industry.
- Among those within the survey group who identified as football fans, 46% said the game needed to do more to improve British Asian representation.
- 64% of the FSA survey group felt the small number of British Asians playing professionally “shamed” football.
- Of those within that group who identified as being British Asian – around one-fifth – 71% said the game is better structured to support the development of white and black players than people from their community.
- A similar number from that group (72%) also said the British Asian community needs to do more to get its youngsters involved in the game.
- 72% of the FSA survey group would be proud to see a British Asian captain England, but just 15% feel that will happen by 2050.
British Asians make up 7% of the UK population. However, only 0.25% of professional footballers are British Asians.
“There are twice as many people of Asian heritage as people of black heritage in the UK yet there are 100 times more black pro players than Asian pro players. That’s a massive statistical anomaly,” said Kick It Out executive chair Sanjay Bhandari.
“It is clear that football has a long-standing problem getting British Asian players into the game and it is getting worse. Football needs to address this.”
‘One of the lads said something about being a terrorist’
Maziar Kouhyar, 23, says he was called a “terrorist” by a team-mate during his time at Walsall.
Kouhyar came to Britain aged one as a result of conflict in his native Afghanistan, for whom he has played international football.
He made 33 Walsall appearances before being released in 2019, and says there were “a lot of good experiences” at the club.
“But also there were a lot of racist things I experienced that made it a bit sour,” he said.
The worst incident was during a warm-up before a training session.
“One of the lads said something to me, something about being a terrorist,” Kouhyar said.
“The guy said it again so we ended up having a confrontation, pushing each other. The lads split it up.”
Kouhyar expected to “get called into the office” to discuss what happened. When nothing was said, he stayed quiet because he “didn’t want to be a troublemaker”.
Kouhyar, a midfielder, now works as a car salesman. He says “racist banter” was “thrown about” during his time in the professional game.
“For example on one occasion we went to Luton. It was a predominantly Asian area we were driving past – some of the lads would say ‘Maz, there’s your cousin’,” Kouhyar said.
“In football, it’s sad to say but that’s just the banter. If you don’t play along with it, you are not going to get along with the lads.
“Now I work at Toyota, there’s no racist banter. Why is it okay as part of football culture? It doesn’t make sense to me.”
In a statement, Walsall said: “As a club we have always prided ourselves on being all inclusive.
“Should Maz have raised any of his concerns at the time with the hierarchy here at the club, they would have been taken very seriously and dealt with swiftly.
“We have a zero tolerance policy on discrimination of any kind and would not condone any such behaviour. Even though he has now left the club we would of course like to deal with his concerns if he is able to provide specific detail.
“He was a valuable member of the club from the age 15 where he progressed through the youth ranks to earn a professional contract before sadly rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament in his knee in April 2019. Despite being out of contract in June, Maz completed his rehabilitation with the club before we parted ways in January 2020.
“Maz is one of a number of British Asian players who have followed a similar path with Walsall FC in recent years such as Netan Sansara, Malvind Benning and Jordon Sangha.”
Original article available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/54843694
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Why are British Asian footballers only allowed to fail once?
Former pro Maziar Kouhyar and Beyond Entertainment’s Raz Hassan are keen to change the narrative and increase opportunities for overlooked players
When Maziar Kouhyar goes out playing football with friends in Birmingham, the comments to the 23-year-old car salesman are almost always the same.
“How are you not still playing professionally?”
That’s a bigger question than realised, but the story should perhaps start with something very different that was said to him when he was a League One player with Walsall. During one training session, Kouhyar was called a “terrorist” by a team-mate. He believes it was intended as “dressing-room banter”, but it just didn’t feel like that for Kouhyar. It was the “ultimate insult”.
“The reason we fled from Afghanistan when I was one year old was because of terrorism, and what was happening to people. So it goes deeper. It hits close to home.
“I endured years of low-level racism from team-mates, as well as that one particularly serious incident, but this kind of behaviour is so ingrained in football over so many years that people probably don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. It was horrible to experience, but I didn’t want to complain in case I was branded a troublemaker – and I felt I had no choice but to just put up with it.”
These are some of the extra pressures that British Asian players have to face, as well as the conscious racism. New research also backs up the view they are victims of structural racism in this regard.
There’s first of all the stark fact that there are only 10 British Asians among the UK’s 4,000 professional footballers – just 0.25 percent of players, compared to 7 percent of the population.
A survey conducted by the Football Supporters’ Association and new athlete life management company, Beyond Entertainment has found that less than a third (29 per cent) of the UK population thinks football is doing enough to get British Asians into professional football, while 46 per cent of football fans thinks more needs to be done. Up to 42 per cent of fans, meanwhile, feel that racism towards British Asians in football is not treated seriously enough, and 86 per cent believes more role models would increase the number of footballers.
It makes former FA chairman Greg Clarke’s comment that “there’s a lot more South Asians” working in “the IT department” all the more pointed and indicative.
Beyond Entertainment’s Razi Hassan, who appears on a Zoom call with Kouhyar to discuss the study, feels British Asian footballers are the victims of stereotypes and unfair perceptions in the game.
“There’s a whole thing around whether they are mentally or physically strong enough,” Hassan explains. “There’s the instance of a top-six scout asking parents why he would bother with a British Asian academy player as ‘he’s going to go on and become an accountant or lawyer’. So it’s that kind of unconscious bias that still exists.”
Kouhyar feels his own career is almost a case study. The attacking midfielder suffered two serious injuries – one with his meniscus, another with his anterior cruciate ligament – and can understand why Walsall ultimately released him. He is grateful to the club for the opportunity, but what has increasingly grated is the lack of opportunity from the game thereafter.
“After I came back, I sent a lot of emails trying to get trials at clubs – to National League North, National League South – and none came back to me. In the end, I just decided to go for the Toyota job when it became available.”
No one was willing to give him that second chance, or even answer him, let alone have a look at him. It is why the experiences of many black coaches strike a chord. It is as if British Asian footballers are only allowed to fail once.
“That does feel right,” he says. “Once you fail once, no second chance. I feel it’s as though, if British Asians were seen better in football, there’d be more sympathy with my story, a bit more support. I could have got through that, because a lot of players get injured; it’s part of the game – they come back and play again.
“In terms of obstacles, I think it’s got a lot to do with the perception of British Asians, like growing up to be lawyers or doctors, or not really being into physical sport.”
Hassan points to other football cultures as examples of how this can quickly change.
“One of the things that strikes me, if you look at some of the countries across Europe that have had huge success – the French national team, the German national team – they are a real representation of the national fabric. The French national team is made up of north African players, central African players. The German national team has a lot of German Turkish players. We don’t have that here. We’re missing that piece, and we are arguably the most diverse of those nations. Yet, when it comes to the football field – whether that be the national team or national league – we’re not represented.
“It’s the piece that needs work here. It’s starting to make some headway, there’s concerted effort at the top level, at the strategic level, but it needs to filter down out of the clubs into the communities. That’s where we [Beyond Entertainment] feel we can help. It is why it must be a multi-agency approach. I think there’s a lot we can learn from those countries. We should look at them and see what they’re doing right.”
Kouhyar takes up the point. “In France, scouts know to look at Asian communities in the suburbs. They know they’re going to find talent there that can develop with proper coaching. There are a lot of Asian leagues in Birmingham. If you go to them, you will find talent.”
Hassan points to the example of 17-year-old Zidane Iqbal at Manchester United, and how British Asian talent can develop if given the right surroundings.
Kouhyar, meanwhile, feels this is why the Black Lives Matter movement could be so influential.
“It has opened the door for people to speak out. I personally would never have felt like doing something like this, speaking out, because I’d feel a troublemaker. But now is the time to speak out, when people are going to listen.”
Kouhyar admits that he hopes an interview like this will see a club take a chance on him, but also that it might start to help change the thinking.
It might change some of the commentary, and not just about Kouhyar when he plays with his friends.
Original article available here: https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news/british-asian-footballers-supporters-association-b1721152.html
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‘FOOTBALL’S BRITISH ASIAN PROBLEM’
Surveys by FSA and BE find half of UK football fans say more must be done to get British Asians playing professionally and tackle racism against them
- Of around 4,000 pro footballers in the UK only 10 are British Asian – making up just 0.25% compared to around 7% of the population
- 46% of football fans want football to do more to increase that number
- 42% think racism towards British Asians in football is not treated seriously enough
- 86% believe more role models within the professional game would increase the number of British Asian professional footballers
- 72% would feel proud to see a British Asian captain England – despite only 15% believing we will see that happen before 2050
- One former British Asian League One player tells how he regularly experienced racism from teammates and football isn’t welcoming to British Asian players
ALMOST half of football supporters think more needs to be done to increase the number of British Asians playing professionally, new research has found.
Of around 4,000 pro footballers in the UK, only 10 are British Asian – defined as people who are predominantly South Asian and live in the UK – which represents a tiny 0.25% of players compared to about 7% of the UK population.
One nationally representative survey found that 42% believe it is more likely British Asians can make it as a pro cricketer, with fewer than 10% of those asked suggesting it is easier for them to carve out a football career.
And it revealed just one-fifth of fans are content that those in charge of the national game treat racism towards British Asians seriously enough – with more than double that number claiming otherwise.
Meanwhile, a second survey of football fans – the overwhelming majority (88%) of whom regularly attend matches – has found:
- 64% think it “shames” football that there are such a small number of British Asians playing professionally
- 86% believe more role models within the professional game would increase British Asian participation in professional football
- 72% would feel proud to see a British Asian captain England – despite only 15% believing we will see that happen before 2050
- 71% of British Asians feel that football is better set up for White and Black British players to prosper – though a similar number (72%) also admits the British Asian community needs to do more to get its youngsters involved in the game
The research, jointly commissioned and released today (THURS NOV 11) by leading fan representative group the Football Supporters’ Association (FSA) and Athlete Life Management company BE, comes just weeks after the Football Association announced a code requiring clubs to meet a recruitment diversity target of 15% in executive jobs and 25% in coaching roles.
While 53% of football fans say they support a rule that mandates clubs to interview coaches and executives from British Asian and other minority backgrounds, the findings suggest further action needs to be taken.
Executive Chair of Kick It Out Sanjay Bhandari said: “There are twice as many people of Asian heritage as people of Black heritage in the UK yet there are 100 times more Black pro players than Asian pro players. That’s a massive statistical anomaly.
“It is clear that football has a long-standing problem getting British Asian players into the game and it is getting worse. Football needs to address this.
“Black players have experienced similar challenges around limiting cultural stereotypes and myths, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s.
“Great progress has been made and many of those myths have been busted. We need to see the same changes with myths around Asian players, and clubs need processes that remove these unconscious biases from the system.”
Racism in the game is seen as a clear issue, the research shows. During five years at Walsall, Maziar Kouhyar – who in August 2016 became the first Afghan-born player to play professionally in the UK – says he regularly experienced racism passed off as ‘dressing-room banter’, including on one occasion being called a ‘terrorist’ by a team-mate.
Kouhyar said: “I endured years of low-level racism from teammates, as well as that one particularly serious incident, but this kind of behaviour is so ingrained in football over so many years that people probably don’t think there’s anything wrong with it.
“It was horrible to experience but I didn’t want to complain in case I was branded a troublemaker – and I felt I had no choice but to just put up with it.”
Despite having previously been linked with a move to the Championship, Kouhyar was released last Spring after Walsall’s relegation to League Two.
Unable to even win a trial at part-time clubs, the 23-year-old former asylum seeker, who moved to the UK aged just one in 1998, left the game altogether and now sells cars for a living.
Kouhyar said: “It’s difficult to know whether being a British Asian hampered my career and if I’d still be playing if I wasn’t British Asian, but the fact there are so few British Asians in the game does seem to suggest football isn’t set up for us to fulfil our potential.
“I think this is due to various reasons. British Asians often come from poor, single-parent families who are unable to afford the money or time to take their children to training and didn’t even consider the idea that their children might be able to make a career in football. Also, I don’t think enough attention is paid by scouts to British Asians.
“Then, for those like me who do manage to turn professional, the dressing room culture isn’t particularly well suited to young men from British Asian families. The tiny number of British Asians playing professional football in the UK really does speak for itself. Something needs to be done to improve the situation.”
The research also examined the reasons why British Asians find it so hard to win careers as professional footballers.
Almost half (49%) of football fans polled pointed to cultural barriers and 37% suggested structural racism towards British Asians in the game remain a barrier to a successful career.
This chimes with former West Ham and Dagenham & Redbridge defender Anwar Uddin, whose father is from Bangladesh.
Now assistant manager at Aldershot and the Diversity and Campaigns Manager for the FSA, the 39-year-old said: “When I was a younger player, I felt uncomfortable at times in social settings which was a key part of team bonding as I always drank soft drinks.
“I thought it would make the situation worse and so at times I just wouldn’t go and make excuses. This can sometimes have players labelled as a loner or not good socially.
“If a coach has to make a decision on a player, apart from a trial what other information do they have to make a decision on that player? If you’re Asian that’s a factor, because you’re different.
“A coach may wonder, will they have to fast, will they be antisocial, or lean on many old-fashioned stereotypes. All these things may play into a decision.
“I hope people are open-minded and look at it positively or fairly moving forward as there is so much talent within the Asian community.”
While football supporters largely tended to view as myths the long-held views that British Asians were not physically or mentally strong enough to make a career in football (with just 13% suggesting those factors as reasons), and lacked ability or came from unsupportive families (both 18%), 47% think a lack of involvement of British Asians in coaching and scouting means British Asian players are overlooked and almost a quarter (22%) believe more British Asian FA registered representatives would help to increase the numbers of pro footballers of that heritage.
Razi Hassan, co-owner of BE, which has as one of its aims to get more British Asians playing professionally and is working with Kouhyar to find him a new club, said: “The survey illustrates that there are several factors associated with the underrepresentation of British Asians in football.
“It also shows that there are one or two core challenges that need to be overcome, and we are campaigning for this.
“However, as an organisation, we are determined to influence where we can, and to that end, we believe that a lack of professional representation and guidance from individuals that understand the cultural sensitivities and nuances of being British Asian and trying to make it as a professional footballer is a space that we can impact.”
Kouhyar added: “I know plenty of British Asian lads I grew up with who were as good technically, mentally and physically as anyone else and if given the chance and properly trained from a young age, I’m sure they could have made it as professionals.
“If they, and I, had been represented by people who understood what it takes for a British Asian to be successful in professional football and had been able to help us better navigate the system, it would definitely help.
“I don’t feel I was given a fair chance of success in the game, and while I have had some injuries, I will always wonder if it was also partly down to being British Asian, or not having a representative who understood my culture. I can’t help thinking that with this support I would still be playing professionally.
“But I still have plenty to give and I’d love to give a career in football another go. Hopefully BE, by working with clubs, scouts and the families of young British Asian footballers, can make that difference.”
Dr Stefan Lawrence, Senior Lecturer in Socio-cultural aspects of Sport and Leisure at Birmingham’s Newman University and one of the leading academics in the field of Asian participation in football, said he welcomed anything that improves the numbers of British Asians playing professional soccer, including the launch of BE.
He said: “The underrepresentation of male British Asian footballers in the pro game is one that has endured for a number of decades.
“Although welfare is now being taken more seriously by many professional clubs the issue is often that this work is believed to be the sole remit of a single officer or department, meaning expertise across all required areas of welfare is not always available in house.
“There is a definite need for welfare to be delivered in an increasingly bespoke way, to better reflect the unique needs of athletes.”
Uddin adds: “When I joined West Ham in 2001, I was asked why there was such a lack of British Asian players playing professionally. Sadly, 19 years later I am being asked the same questions, which is disappointing. It’s right to say there are problems.”
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Bournemouth’s Dinesh Gillela on damaging stereotypes Asian footballers deal with in Britain
Fan survey reveals 42% think racism towards British Asians in football is not treated seriously enough; 86% believe more role models within the professional game would increase their
on the pitch; 72% would feel proud to see a British Asian captain England
“The stereotypes that Asian youngsters are only good at cricket, or only good at IT… that needs to be broken.”
These are the words of Bournemouth’s Dinesh Gillela, who has been dealing with racism in football ever since the age of 10.
A new survey by the Football Supporters’ Association and Beyond Entertainment claims professional players from the British Asian community are barely in double digits, out of a total of 4,000 players across clubs in England.
In the same week that the FA chairman Greg Clarke was forced to resign over ‘unacceptable remarks’ to a Parliamentary hearing that included stereotypes of Asian communities, executive chair of Kick It OutSanjay Bhandari says a commitment to tackling the lack of British Asian players is long overdue.
“This has been a big stubborn problem for 40 years, and really the dial has hardly moved at all,” he said. “I’d say there are the big structural problems in English football in terms of systemic biases: One is the boardrooms being predominantly white and male; one is the absence of black coaches; and the third one is the absence of Asian players.”
On November 29, 1978, Viv Anderson broke through another racial barrier by becoming the first black player to represent the England senior team, but 42 years later not one British Asian player has represented the Three Lions at senior level, while only a handful having played in the Premier League.
“Ultimately the numbers don’t lie do they? So when we have an Asian player lining up for England and a pipeline of players below that we know that they’re going to make it,” Bhandari added.
“You remember when Viv Anderson made it, it was Viv Anderson or Laurie Cunningham, but there was always Cyrille Regis and a load of other players in the background. We don’t have that. Hamza Choudhury might make it but if he does, where is the next one, is that another 40 years?”
It’s not only stereotypes that are holding back young players from South Asian communities, with many having encountered overt racism during their careers.
Twenty-year-old Bournemouth defender Dinesh Gillela says that the worst abuse he had to suffer actually came from parents of the other children playing on a Sunday afternoon.
“The abuse I usually suffered was from the sidelines believe it or not, and it’s certain parents calling me names. As a young kid it was hard to take and I would hear it and I would look at a father and I’m thinking ‘you’re saying that to me’ and bearing in mind I’m only 10/11 years old, and I’m thinking ‘Wow.'”
He also feels his family heritage made it more difficult for him to get signed by an academy, an experience he shared with fellow South Asian players.
“When I was younger there were scouts that came – but very, very rarely. I feel like when they came to watch me they wouldn’t pick me up straight away, they’d pick up a couple of my team-mates and I’d be standing there, I’d be left, I’ll carry on playing but it was never a case of they’d come and then they’d select me.
“I felt like even speaking to other team-mates, as in other Asian football players in the academies, they feel like they had to have two, three, four chances but other players have had just the one chance and they’ve gone straight into the academy.”
Since turning professional, Gillela recognises a different form of racism, with ill-informed attitudes still prevalent right at the top of the game.
“The stereotypes that Asian youngsters are only good at cricket, or are only good IT, or are only good at maths, I feel like it’s a stereotype that needs to be broken and I feel like as long as there is pressure in the media to cover these topics, I feel like that will make a huge difference,” he said.
“Obviously we heard the Greg Clarke comment the other day… That sort of stuff needs to be eradicated and it’s a big part of what other people’s perception is of South Asian players.”
There is hope for the future that attitudes are ready to change, and 72 per cent of fans that responded to the survey said they’d be proud to see a British Asian captain England.
While Dinesh knows he is only just starting out on his professional footballing journey, he is aiming for the very top, and he doesn’t see playing for his country as an impossible dream.
“I hope my career goes to that level where I can try and get an international call-up. It all starts from the ground level but also from higher up, and with the FA chairman, it starts there.
“That’ll make a massive difference and to see that the whole country is behind ethnic minorities coming through and playing for their country. As long as everyone is in the same boat I feel like it could be sooner rather than later.”
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