Racism: Thousands of British-Asians in the country, but only 12 play professionally

I am a British South-Asian football fan, and pretty much every Asian I know watches football.

I was reading this article here:
https://phys.org/news/2018-04-british-asian-footballers-scouts-professional.html

The article mentions this:

One white scout from a professional club told him: "They [Asians] don't like physical contact, I think that's their problem. Why are they good at cricket? Why are they absolutely exceptional at squash? Why do they not participate in any other sports where there is physical contact?"

The article also mentions this, which really hit me:


He interviewed 75 Asian men who played amateur soccer, who said there was little interest from professional clubs. One told him that though he had played for Asian teams with talented players that had done well in amateur leagues, "but I've never seen a scout watch a match in 18 years."

Is this country racist? I've played amateur football in the past. There are some seriously talented players out there...why is it that we can't get a SINGLE South-Asian football player playing in the top-flight? The 2011 consensus tells us that 4.9% of the total population in this country are South Asian. Why isn't there a single SA footballer playing in the Premier League?

People will argue 'it shouldn't be about race, it should be about whether they're talented enough'...well, my question is: how would the scouts even know they aren't good enough if they don't even come down to watch them play?

So I pose the question:

Is this country racist towards South-Asian amateur football players?

Nope.
PL is packed with black players
Also packed with foreign players.

Look how many top players india or pakistan has produced?
You also dont see the thousands that get kicked out of the academies.

You carry on believing its all down to racism if you want.

If a kid is good enough why dont they go to trials?

You could do with learning how to construct an argument where the conclusion flows from the premises. You might equally have written as your final sentence 'Does this meant that all South-Asian amateur football players like cheese?'

You don’t understand. In South Asia, cricket is their main sport, not football. In Brazil, football is like a religion to them. The same way, cricket is a religion in South Asia.

But here, British South Asians grew up watching football and so they love their football, not cricket, so it’s definitely not a “South Asians don’t like football” nor is it that “South Asians don’t produce good football players”.

Look, I’m not saying it’s completely 100% racism. I’ve never suggested that. I’m saying racism has a part in this.

I believe the reason there aren’t many South Asian football players is because:
a) they see that there aren’t any South Asians playing in professional football, so they already feel they stand no chance - having no real role model to look up to
b) pressure from family to concentrate on their studies and basically saying there’s really no point wishing you can be a football player (first generation kids especially), and to concentrate in becoming Doctors and Lawyers etc.
c) scouts in the country not looking around in all areas, in every borough - completely ignoring areas that are filled with South Asian kids
d) not having the overall belief and the hunger that you can ever be good enough to play at the highest level and they don’t even try to put the effort in (Messi became a football player by being recorded...he was scouted by a video)
e) not being good enough and knowing it.

There are so many reasons, I’m not saying racism is the only one. I think a) and c) can definitely change externally, and b) and d) can be improved over the years internally. Especially as I’m 23, my kids will be second generation South Asian kids. So I will make sure he knows if he wants to become a football player, he’ll have to play football 3 hours a day and train extremely hard. Whereas, my parents had no clue.

I think our people just aren’t particularly interested in that sort of career. Sports as career isn’t something that’s drilled into us culturally and sometimes prents can discourage their kids from spending too much time playing instead of studying.

Yes there might be other cultural reasons, but i doubt theres racism involved as you suggested.

We arent going to agree so will let you get on with it.

Yes, finding the best you said, not finding the best white/black player. You don’t find it suspicious at all that not a SINGLE South Asian player can’t make it in the PL?

And not a half South Asian, a typical one. A typical 5’7 South Asian kid. You’re not suspicious at all?

How do you explain the fact that scouts don’t visit areas that are populated with South Asian kids, and watch them play football? I’ve never once heard in my whole borough that a scout has come round here to check football players, because everyone will know about it.

You keep banging on about British Asians loving football.

This is a nonsense. For a few reasons.

1. Millions of people love football. That doesn't mean they're any good at playing it.

2. The overwhelming majority of British Asians I have seen are not playing football. They are having a kick about. These are entirely different things. Scouts don't wander around parks randomly hoping to spot the next Neymar. That's idiotic. They go to clubs, leagues, tournaments, trials. The vast majority of clubs have very few Asians in them, if any. Most Asians I have seen "playing football" are doing nothing more than kicking a ball about aimlessly and swearing as loudly and as often as possible.

3. I don't think you have any sense of the numbers involved. Becoming a professional footballer requires incredible dedication. This dedication is notably absent in most people, and most Asians - who frankly have other priorities. Youth teams are packed with white boys, packed with black boys - but many fewer Asians. It doesn't matter if Asians are 7% of the population - what matters is that they're 0.5% (or less) of the youth players.

You don't know what you're talking about. I played in league football from the age of 12-16. There were around 12 teams in the league. They do play league football, not the majority, you're right, but a large proportion of league football in areas filled with South Asian people are obviously filled up with South Asian football players. But scouts do not come into these areas to watch South Asian football players.

...yes, let's throw in the typical racist stereotype that we shout and swear a lot.

As I said, in a borough filled with mainly South Asian people, the league is filled with South Asian players. Not all youth teams are filled with white and black boys - the majority of them, yes, because not all boroughs are populated by a lot of South Asian people, but the ones that are, are packed with South Asian footballers.

But as I said, it's not the only thing that holds back South Asians from competing in football professionally. There are many factors. But, my point is, if scouts did change their approach, teams in England and the England national team, may discover some incredible talents.

There are MILLIONS of South Asian kids playing football around the country. You can't tell me not a single one is good enough. I don't believe that at all.

A lot of the coaching at grass roots level is for more physically capable players than technically, I expect that plays a part of it.

Yeah South Asians are in general manlets tbf. Although physicality is not just down to height and strength. Look at kante or Fred e.g.

@S.G. Come get your mans. ****ing soyboy.

Being a 6ft south Asian means I’m gold standard for arranged marriage. /s

Cba with this topic though. Doubt there’s many South Asian parents who really see sport as a realistic career.

Yeah South Asians are in general manlets tbf. Although physicality is not just down to height and strength. Look at kante or Fred e.g.

@S.G. Come get your mans. ****ing soyboy.