This initiative is an important part of The FA’s broader inclusion plan, ‘In Pursuit of Progress’, which is The FA’s ongoing commitment to ensure the diversity of those leading and governing football better reflects what we see on the pitch in the modern game. 

The announcement was made during a gathering of community members and football stakeholders at Aston Villa FC.  

A key strand of this campaign focuses on the importance of role models and to raise awareness of the Asian ‘success stories’ in English football. To accompany the announcement, The FA has created a short film featuring four Asian role models, referee Lisa Rashid, England Women’s deaf futsal player Lucindha Lawson, Charlton Athletic Women’s manager Riteesh Mishra, and Swansea City FC player Yan Dhanda. It is hoped that the film will disprove outdated stereotypes and provide motivation for those who want to follow in theirs and other role models’ footsteps.  

As part of the new ‘Bringing Opportunities to Communities’ drive, The FA will launch the first Asian inclusion in football online guide, which will share learnings, case studies and provide guidance on Asian inclusion for football at all levels.  It will also form an Asian female guidance group, which will inform the actions needed to embed Asian women in football at all levels. This work will form part of The FA’s next Women’s Strategy starting in 2020 through to 2024. 

And, working alongside the Football Supporters’ Federation [FSF], The FA will introduce Asian fans forums, starting with the Euro 2020 qualifier between England and Bulgaria at Wembley Stadium connected by EE on Saturday 07 September 2019. 

Paul Elliott CBE, Chair of The FA’s Inclusion Advisory Board, said: “The FA is passionate about helping to create an inclusive and diverse game and we want to continue to encourage and support anyone who wants to enjoy football, regardless of their background. We recognise the pivotal role The FA can continue to play in helping to break down the barriers that may stop people from getting involved in football as Asian communities have historically been underrepresented across all areas of the game.” 

Following the success of last year’s competition, which was won by East London pub, The Gun, in thrilling fashion, the 2019 BT Sport Pub Cup will be open to more teams than ever before, with over 190 places up for grabs across a men’s and a women’s tournament*. 

This year BT Sport will also be giving away a full Puma team kit for every BT Sport Pub team that enters the draw to compete**. 

The free-to-enter competition, which aims to celebrate pubs and their football teams, begins on the 8th May with twelve regional qualifiers at stadiums across the UK, including Anfield – Liverpool, Selhurst Park – Crystal Palace, St. Marys – Southampton, Molineux – Wolverhampton, Stadium of Light – Sunderland , Liberty Stadium – Swansea and Windsor Park – Belfast, before the winning teams face off in the semi-finals at the state-of-the-art City Academy, home of Manchester City and with the final at Newcastle’s St. James’ Park on 4th June. 

Bruce Cuthbert, director commercial customers, BT Sport, said: “This year we’re bringing back the BT Sport Pub Cup, bigger and better, with more teams able to take part and the biggest pub team kit giveaway ever.Sport is such an important part of pub culture and this competition aims to strengthen the tie between licensees and their communities by offering a once in a life time experience to pub football teams up and down the country.” 

Robbie Savage, manager of last year’s winners, The Gun, said of the 2018 competition: “It’s been very professional, very organised and a fantastic initiative to give these guys the opportunities to play at some fantastic venues.” 

John Hartson, who managed last year’s finalists, the Liver Vaults said: “The Pub Cup is a great advert for all the pubs across the country and fair play to BT Sport for putting something like this on.” 

Both new and established teams representing their local BT Sport pub can enter. Entrants can sign up until the 31st March 2019 at www.btsportbusiness.com/pubcup.Teams wanting to enter and represent a BT Sport pub can find their nearest BT Sport pub at www.btsportbusiness.com. 

Founder of the Asian Football Awards, Baljit Rihal, said this after the event; “Asian communities are some of the most likely to play football in England at grassroots and recreational level. However, these numbers are not reflected with players at the elite end or more broadly within the administration of the game.”

“These awards have been about focusing on the positive stories of role models within the Asian community. The Young Player shortlist showed us that we have a bright future if these young men are indeed afforded regular first-team football. Easah Suliman has given us hope by becoming the first Asian to captain an England team – furthermore
his goal to help England U19s win the Euros was a historic event for the Asians
in Football movement.”

“For the first time we have introduced The Women’s Player Award – Maya Vio has been outstanding for Spurs Ladies and my hope is that more Asian women follow her example and get involved in football and aspire to playing at the elite level.”

WINNERS ON THE NIGHT WERE:

FOUNDERS PLAYER RECOGNITION AWARD: Danny Batth (Captain Wolverhampton Wanderers FC)
MEDIA AWARD: Seema Jaswal (Premier League TV & FIFA U17 World Cup Anchor)
YOUNG PLAYER AWARD: Easah Suliman (Aston Villa FC & England)
COACH AWARD: Taff Rahman (Coach Educator at The FA)
WOMEN’S PLAYER AWARD: Maya Vio (Spurs Ladies FC)
SPECIAL RECOGNITION AWARD: Chelsea FC Asian Star
NON-LEAGUE PLAYER AWARD: Amar Purewal (West Auckland FC & Panjab FA)
GRASSROOTS AWARD: Kulwinder Singh Johal (GNG FC Leicester)
BEHIND THE SCENES AWARD: Humayun Islam (Shapla Sports & Bangla Bantams)
TEAM AWARD: Panjab Football Association
FA FOR ALL AWARD: Stanmore Jafferys Football Academy

You can do crunches all day long, but they won’t automatically whittle your middle. It takes regular aerobic exercise to get rid of the layer of fat over your abdomen. However, strong “core” muscles can help protect you from back problems; if you’re a woman, they’ll also make pregnancy and delivery easier. Despite the preponderance of gizmos promising to give you strong, slim abs, the best exercise is still the no-frills crunch. Be sure not to pull on your neck; in fact, if you are a beginner, it is best to keep your arms across your chest. For a more complete ab workout, be sure to also work on your obliques (by performing the crunch at alternating angles, reaching with the shoulder to the opposite knee) and lower abs (bring your knees up to a 90 degree angle, then use your lower ab muscles to crunch them toward your chest). Start with 10 repetitions of each of these exercises and work up to 25 reps. Like your other muscles, abs need 48 hours to recover between workouts.

Abs – Work them! Do A Whole-Body Exercise Routine

To look good you need all your core muscles to be firm. That includes your gluteus and back muscles. Core strength training exercises are one way to work all of the core muscles, plus the arms and legs. Start slowly.

Work those Obliques

Stand upright, feet apart. Lock your fingers to create a solid grip. Exhale, and sweep the hands, arms, shoulders, and chest to the left, as if you were rowing a canoe. At the same time, lift the left knee up and to the right. Inhale and return to the starting position. Exhale and perform the movement to the right. Keep switching sides for 20 reps.

Practice the Abs ‘Zip Up’

Stand upright with heels together, toes slightly turned out. Bring your arms up, hands joined, below the chin. Exhale and press your arms down. Keep your hands and arms very close to the body. At the same time, lift your heels off the ground onto your tiptoes. Hold for two seconds at the ‘top,’ inhale, and return to the starting position. The abs go ‘in and up’ and the arms go down. Do 20 reps.

Eat Healthy

Ab exercises won’t show if you have got extra belly fat. To budge the belly fat, you have to look at what you eat and how active you are. Eat less and move more, and make good-for-you food choices. Think lean protein and veggies, and low-calorie foods to get those
flat abs.

Last but not least, Improve Your Posture

Slouch and your stomach comes out. Straighten up, and your tummy looks trimmer without breaking a sweat! For better posture, align your ears over your shoulders,
shoulders over hips, hips over knees, and knees over ankles. Keep your shoulders open like a shirt on a hanger, not one draped on a peg. Draw your navel to your spine. Not
least, keep your weight even on the balls of your feet and your heels.

Q. How did you get involved in developing football in India?

A. I was invited on a trade mission with the Black Country Chamber of Commerce in 2013. Working at West Bromwich Albion, we were looking to identify a new international audience for us to grow our brand. I put together a business plan, and the board endorsed my idea. This led to Albion tying up with Indian football team, Delhi Dynamos. We provided them with Adil Nabi on loan to play in the ISL. Through our coaching network, we coached 20k school children over one summer in India with an initiative called Pass It Forward, co. funded by the University of Wolverhampton.

Q. What impact has your sports agency SGI made on football in India?

A. Our business in India operates a grassroots level programme for young children from the British Embassy school and the American Embassy school. We have over 200 children training with us every week. On Sundays, we have a youth league which sees over 1500 children playing football for 9-12 months. It’s also not-for-profit, so 30% of the children in the league come from deprived backgrounds. We provide them with football kit, boots, food and water so that they can play football with kids that have wealthy parents. We’ve built this up based on a 70/30 rule, where 70% are paying, and the remaining 30% aren’t paying, this allows everyone to play football.

Q. Which players are you currently representing?

A.
• Jayesh Rane
• Rahul Bheke
• Ex- Afghanistan captain Zohib
Islam Amiri
• ‘India’s David Beckham’ Steven
Dias

Q. Which players shall we look out for in this season of the Indian Super League?

A. There are former EPL Players like Robbie Keane, Wes Brown and Dimitar Berbatov. Jayesh Rane is a flamboyant winger to watch out for. The live entertainment value is I think better than what we serve up in the UK, with the full fan participation, and we should be very jealous of the atmosphere. The ISL is now the 4th most live viewed football league in the world only in 4 years, behind the Premier League, Bundesliga,
and La Liga.

Q. How would you go about making football more popular in India than cricket?

A. If you switch on the TV in India, there is football on from everywhere, the Premier League being the most popular. People aren’t just watching cricket, they watch football now too, whereas ten years ago, that wasn’t the case. Nowadays, football seems a viable
sporting option for students. Kids now see footballers like Wayne Rooney, Diego Costa making millions. Social media has increased the awareness, and more kids want to play football.

Chance To Shine charity organised the event which aims at motivating youngsters to participate in sports, whilst making a great impact to society. Nasim said “It’s for the first time in the history of 10 Downing Street that cricket was played outside the famous
number 10 door and watched on by the British Prime Minister”.

“The aim was to show people of different backgrounds playing cricket and to show that British Asians also have talent and that cricket is accessible for all no matter what your background. Some of my Pakistani girls were also playing and handed the PM a shirt as a gift.”

Nasim received awards this year, which included Coach of the Year by Chance to Shine and the British Empire Medal by the Queen. They were given due to her services to cricket and for developing grassroot level cricket, to Asians in East London, especially for young girls.

Prime Minister, May said: “It’s been a privilege to meet the young players and inspirational coaches today. The work Chance to Shine does, introducing young people from disadvantaged communities to this great, fast-paced version of cricket, is invaluable.

After the success of the England team in the Women’s World Cup this year, I hope boys and girls all over the country will continue to be inspired to get involved with this brilliant sport.” CEO of Chance to Shine, Luke Swanson said: “We want to show that the beautiful game is for all young people, and can be played anywhere.

What better way to do that than with a game of street cricket in the most famous street of all.”