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By Simon Stone
BBC Sport
Racist incidents will’hurt’ efforts to bring more coaches and players from cultural minorities at grassroots level, states one of the game’s most prominent Asian figures.
Riz Rehman, 36, is Zesh’s brother , the very first Asian to play all four top divisions of the pyramid.
Riz has been appointed chairman of the Surrey FA’s Inclusion Advisory Group.
He’ll outline pathways offered to coaches and players in a bid.
He acknowledges the task will not be made simpler by the kind of online racism experienced by Marcus Rashford, Tammy Abraham and Paul Pogba amongst others over the last couple of weeks, along with the fighter sounds directed at Romelu Lukaku if he scored for Inter Milan at Calgiari on Sunday.
“It will hurt – the way it is said and that says itcan have an effect,” said Rehman.
“What I’d say is that Lukaku and Rashford have handled their situations quite well. They have said the proper things. Nevertheless, it is bound to change them.”
Rehman has vast expertise in the game.
A former player at Brentford along with a qualified mentor, he works as an education adviser for the PFA and sits around the Premier League’s flagship’Coach Apprenticeship Strategy’.
He is a trustee for its Zesh Rehman Foundation, which strives to induce community cohesion sports participation and social growth .
“Soccer reflects culture,” he explained. “Racism is currently also in society.
“I am sure it’s an effect.
“I’ve spoken to people from Bradford who have taken their teams to tournaments where they have been racially abused. They have stopped doing so because they say nothing occurs. This may be the reason why more Asians specifically don’t move farther in the game.
“However, I don’t believe the whole of soccer is racist. There wouldn’t be no diversity at all if it was. There’s a minority who want more education.”
Rehman, who had been born in Birmingham, is concerned at the absence of British Asians specifically involved both professionally and at grassroots level, in football.
Zesh Rehman is having had spells at eight English clubs Bradford along with QPR City.
At the England Yan Dhanda of Swansea and Leicester midfielder Hamza Choudhury, you will find British Asians at a high degree of soccer, even though the numbers are small.
“At the moment, for Asians, it is all about playing the sport,” he explained.
“They’re likely 10 to 20 decades away from where we would want it to be. As for post-playing, you do not see many trainers or managers on seats at matches, let alone British Asians.
“In fact, my brother is the only British Asian to possess his own Pro-Licence badge. He will most likely be the first person to handle from Championship or the Premier League if he wishes to go down that path.
“That could be enormous. If it occurred, he would have a bigger impact as a coach or manager than he did as a player.”
Raya Ahmed is breaking down soccer barriers in a manner that is different.
The 23-year-old was good enough to be spotted by a psychologist and started playing football when she had been at school.
You need to become one if you don’t find any part models
By her own admission, she had been intimidated by the absence of British Asian gamers and stop after one moment.
Undeterred, Ahmed obtained a diploma in sports science. At precisely the same time she did some training.
She has been named as a lady participation officer in Crystal Palace.
“Once I made to Wimbledon, what made me never wish to last has been a lack of assurance. I was 16. You didn’t see many Asians enjoying soccer,” she said.
“Now I am working together with females, engaging them. Get as many females as I can and I want to inspire them no matter what their background is, how old they are or what area they come from.
“I say to them exactly what I said to myself once when I was 16. You need to fight with your own fears. No-one in my peer group, either at college or university, thought as a career of football.
“You want to push yourself. Get out there. You want to become one, if you do not find any function models. If you get out there, someone will accompany you.”
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