Daniel Burdsey - British Asians and Football

First published 2007
by Routledge
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2007 Daniel Burdsey

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Burdsey, Daniel, 1976
British Asians and football: culture, identity, exclusion/Daniel Burdsey.
p. cm. (Routledge critical studies in sport)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Discrimination in sports Great Britain. 2. Asians Great Britain. 3. Soccer Great Britain. I. Title. II. Series.
GV706.32.B87 2006
796.3340941 dc22

2006015262

ISBN 0-203-41352-0 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 10: 0-415-39500-3 (hbk)
ISBN 10: 0-203-96686-4 (ebk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-415-39500-7 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-203-96686-0 (ebk)

British Asians and Football

Many British Asians play football at an amateur level, but only a very few have achieved professional status. Representing the first major study into this issue, this book examines the real-life experiences of British Asians in football, and considers the reasons for their marginal place in the British national game.

Based on original ethnographic research, this work explores key issues for debate, including:

Presenting original research into a largely neglected area of study, British Asiansand Football offers new insight into what it means to be young, male, British and Asian. For students, researchers and policymakers interested in the sociology and politics of race, identity, social values and sport, this is essential reading.

Daniel Burdsey is Senior Lecturer in Sociology of Sport and Leisure at the University of Brighton.

Routledge Critical Studies in Sport

Series Editors

Jennifer Hargreaves and Ian McDonald

University of Brighton

The Routledge Critical Studies in Sport series aims to lead the way in developing the multi-disciplinary field of Sport Studies by producing books that are interrogative, interventionist and innovative. By providing theoretically sophisticated and empirically grounded texts, the series will make sense of the changes and challenges facing sport globally. The series aspires to maintain the commitment and promise of the critical paradigm by contributing to a more inclusive and less exploitative culture of sport.

Also available in this series:

Understanding Lifestyle Sports

Consumption, identity and difference

Edited by Belinda Wheaton

Why Sports Morally Matter

William J Morgan

Fastest, Highest, Strongest

A critique of high-performance sport

Rob Beamish and Ian Ritchie

Sport, Sexualities and Queer/Theory

Edited by Jayne Caudwell

Physical Culture, Power, and the Body

Edited by Jennifer Hargreaves and Patricia Vertinsky

In 1996, the Asians Cant Play Football report hit the desks of the football authorities. If British football was to live up to its claim to be at the forefront of combating racism and the embodiment of multi-culturalism, it was acknowledged that something had to be done to open up the pathways to professional football for aspiring young British Asians. But in the 10 years to 2006, although there were improved opportunities for some British Asians in different areas of life and culture, there was no significant increase in their numbers in professional football. During that period, a generation of British Asian football hopefuls passed through their formative years as the early teenagers of 1996 became the twenty-somethings of 2006, but in spite of the many projects and initiatives aimed at eliminating discrimination and nurturing inclusion, an upsurge of British Asians in the professional game simply did not take place. This situation is the focus of Dan Burdseys timely and important book, British Asians and Football:Culture, Identity and Exclusion. In his analysis, Burdsey places the question of the low level of British Asian football players firmly within the social and political milieu of the time, taking account of the particular problems and uncertainties facing British Asians following the political backwash from the 11 September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington and 7 July 2005 bombings in London, the intensification of Islamaphobia, and a generalised atmosphere of suspicion towards all the diverse British Asian communities. In his book Burdsey addresses the highly sensitive and complex dynamics of culture, identity and exclusion that are relevant to professional football in Britain as well as to broader society.

Through meticulous fieldwork, including numerous interviews and participant observations, Burdsey was able to spend time listening first hand to the experiences of British Asian football players at different professional and amateur levels of the game, to get under their skins, and to represent them through his text. He also interviewed administrators of the game and those in leadership positions in the anti-racism football movement. As a result, he has produced a book that interrogates assumptions about under-representation, is interventionist through the telling of previously untold stories, and is innovative by way of a very detailed development of previous academic arguments about football and anti-racism that includes original material and sophisticated analysis.

The British Asian participants in his book were keen for Burdsey to tell their story, to expose the myths about an ethnically-based disinterest in the game and to explain the reasons for their strong feelings of exclusion based on racial discrimination. They recognize that they do not have an official voice in the places where decisions are made about football development and that this book can provide an alternative, non-establishment, more honest and accurate version of the situation. As Series Editors we share these views. It is a vindication of one persons privileged position being used to progressive effect. Although Burdsey is not authentically part of the culture that he investigates, he has chosen to use his authoritative speaking position as a white academic to articulate the needs and desires of those whose voices have generally been ignored.