Why are there so few Asian footballers in Britain?

Given that it's our national sport, why does it remain so unpopular with lads of Asian descent?
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Football is popular with young Asians … but few turn pro.
Football is popular with young Asians … but few turn pro. Photograph: Alamy

Communities can get stuck on particular professional pathways: doctor, lawyer, civil servant. What is your son thinking of doing, I asked an Indian schoolfriend a while back. He's going to be a dentist, came the reply. I have told him, he said. I have checked it out. Good money. It's a good job.

So there is choice about who does what, but sometimes the choice isn't a real one. It may stem from lack of inclusivity and a feeling that certain activities are reserved for particular sections of society. This may be the case in professional sport.

Drive past fields and commons up and down the country on a Saturday afternoon or a Sunday morning and there is a good chance you'll see groups of lads of Asian descent playing football. Cricket doesn't seem to have the pull it once did, but it also remains popular as a boys' pursuit, desire fuelled perhaps by the glamour of the Indian Premier League, screened in this country on cable TV. But what of Asian professional footballers? Given the level of interest in the sport, why have so few broken through to the top-ranked clubs. And what of cricket? With Monty Panesar and Ravi Bopara, the situation in cricket is better than it was. But still, there is troubling disparity between the level of interest and the progression of those who love the sport and would play at the highest levels of the game. No one really knows why this is.

Helen Grant, the sports minister, got into trouble last week for an interview in Total Politics in which she appeared to suggest that anyone troubled by the shenanigans at the passport office should holiday in Britain. But elsewhere in the same interview was a revelation. Asked why so few British-born Pakistanis and other Asians play for clubs like Yorkshire, given the high Asian population in places such as West Yorkshire, and for clubs such as West Ham, which has pride of place in heavy Bangladeshi Upton Park, she said: "I think there will be lots of different reasons, including confidence, feeling included when they participate in sport. These are the issues the Equalities and Human Rights Commission will get to the bottom of." Suddenly fair representation is on the agenda.

Government can't pick the teams. But it might influence the makeup of the squad.

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