We are delighted to once again host the Asian Football Awards at Wembley Stadium, with this year’s event set to take place on Wednesday 25 September 2024.
Now in its fifth edition, the event last took place in 2017 and is a celebration of inspirational individuals and organisations who are making a positive impact on South Asian communities across the UK.
The 2024 awards were launched in June with an event including professional footballer Yan Dhanda, match officials Sunny and Bhupinder Gill, and coach Manisha Tailor MBE. The awards evening at our national stadium, which is being supported by The FA, Premier League, PFA, PGMOL and Fans For Diversity, will showcase impactful work being implemented across our game and will feature working sessions, a gala dinner and a special guest panel before closing with the awards ceremony.
Nominations are currently live here with the awards covering men’s and women’s players, match officials, coaches, grassroots participants and community clubs, and media.
Head of Diversity & Inclusion Strategic Programmes, Dal Singh Darroch, said: "We’re delighted to once again welcome the Asian Football Awards to the home of English football. This will be an important opportunity to celebrate the inspiring work of those who are making a positive impact for South Asian communities across the UK. Creating opportunities for South Asian communities is very important to us, and we’re committed to using our influence to help drive this forward. We’ve made good progress in this area in recent years, however we know there’s much more work to be done, and it’s crucial that the footballing bodies continue to work together to ensure our game becomes truly representative. Asian communities make up the largest ethnic minority groups in the country and ensuring this is better reflected in our game will remain a strategic priority for us for years to come."
Asian Football Awards founder Baljit Rihal said: "Our last awards were in 2017, and so much has happened in the South Asian football space since then. There are many stories to be highlighted with people and organisations to be recognised. Yet, the overarching issue of underrepresentation in professional football for the South Asian community still exists. We believe that by reviving the awards, we can help increase awareness and not only encourage more into professional football but also make decision-makers at clubs more aware and be a catalyst to addressing this issue."
In addition, to mark South Asian Heritage Month, we recently released the latest episode of our ‘Football & Me’ series, which highlights positive stories with the aim of inspiring people within Asian communities to play a bigger part in our game. The latest episode was filmed at St. George’s Park, hosted by BBC Asian Network sports reporter Amber Sandhu and Sky Sports News presenter Sanny Rudravajhala. They were joined by coach Manisha Tailor MBE, Leicester City player Arjan Raikhy, the Football Supporters' Association's Nilesh Chauhan, and David Rainford, the Premier League's head of education and academy player welfare.
We will be releasing further episodes of Football & Me over the coming weeks, covering a wide range of important subjects including LGBTQ+ inclusion and Black history.
