How do we change the 'cultural' make up of football crowds?

[danlanza]

It was fantastic to see.Bannan looks absolutely terrified

So much so that his hair on the back of his head stood on end .
Lik Remy said, when the first Asian footballer bursts onto the scene in the Prem then the Asian community will follow that player. It would be fantastic if it was to happen at Villa with our multicultural city backing it up. I look forward to the day this happens and also look forward to the day that Asian players get their big break. For the life of me i cannot see why this has not happened in the last 20 years. Surely there must be a large Asian percentage in academies of football all over the country, including the Villa, surely ?

[bertlambshank]

Great idea but no drums please.

[danlanza]

Great idea but no drums please.

No drums ? You have me a tadge confused there bert.

[Gaztonniller]

It was fantastic to see.Bannan looks absolutely terrified

So much so that his hair on the back of his head stood on end .
Lik Remy said, when the first Asian footballer bursts onto the scene in the Prem then the Asian community will follow that player. It would be fantastic if it was to happen at Villa with our multicultural city backing it up. I look forward to the day this happens and also look forward to the day that Asian players get their big break. For the life of me i cannot see why this has not happened in the last 20 years. Surely there must be a large Asian percentage in academies of football all over the country, including the Villa, surely ?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/sep/24/british-asians-premier-league-football

[Witton Warrior]

We sit in the Upper Trinity and there are many attendees from the South Asian Continent sitting around there as well as the odd contingent from the People's Republic of China ;-)

When we have arrived very late you will often find Asian lads waiting at the Trinity Road gates for free entry after about 30 minutes of the game - there was a steward with a load of tickets handing them out at the Manure match

[bertlambshank]

Great idea but no drums please.

No drums ? You have me a tadge confused there bert.

Within five years, the organisation has grown to the point it now has more than 800 members. At home matches, they sit in different parts of Molineux. But at away matches the Punjabi Wolves are a noticeable, unified presence, travelling together, sitting together, banging their Indian drums as they approach grounds.

“The drums give us our identity,” says Bains. “But we consider ourselves very much part of the Wolves family.”

[tomd2103]

There must be more underlying reasons, as it's not just football where this issue exists.  As other posters have pointed out, cricket is generally regarded as being popular amongst certain ethnic groups in Birmingham, yet as a follower of Warwickshire I would say that the cultural make up of crowds at Edgbaston is pretty much the same as you see at most football grounds (ie not very mixed at all).     

[danlanza]

It was fantastic to see.Bannan looks absolutely terrified

So much so that his hair on the back of his head stood on end .
Lik Remy said, when the first Asian footballer bursts onto the scene in the Prem then the Asian community will follow that player. It would be fantastic if it was to happen at Villa with our multicultural city backing it up. I look forward to the day this happens and also look forward to the day that Asian players get their big break. For the life of me i cannot see why this has not happened in the last 20 years. Surely there must be a large Asian percentage in academies of football all over the country, including the Villa, surely ?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/sep/24/british-asians-premier-league-football

A bit of an eye opener that article. Lets hope things get better for the Asian community inside the football acadamies.

[bertlambshank]

There must be more underlying reasons, as it's not just football where this issue exists.  As other posters have pointed out, cricket is generally regarded as being popular amongst certain ethnic groups in Birmingham, yet as a follower of Warwickshire I would say that the cultural make up of crowds at Edgbaston is pretty much the same as you see at most football grounds (ie not very mixed at all).     

It's different when India and Pakistan are in town.

[tomd2103]

There must be more underlying reasons, as it's not just football where this issue exists.  As other posters have pointed out, cricket is generally regarded as being popular amongst certain ethnic groups in Birmingham, yet as a follower of Warwickshire I would say that the cultural make up of crowds at Edgbaston is pretty much the same as you see at most football grounds (ie not very mixed at all).     

It's different when India and Pakistan are in town.

Of course it is, but the fact that local people aren't interested in their local teams isn't exclusive to football. 

[London Villan]

Is it just football though. As was said about the cricket and Warwickshire's fan base being mostly white.

How about other events and sports.

Athletics at the NIA? Perry Barr?
Speedway?
Greyhound racing?
Rugby?
Tennis?
BMX Championships at the NIA.

Or how about concerts at the Symphony Hall or the NIA. Comedy gigs, anything really.

I've been to all of these recently and I wouldn't say football is any worse at integrating different cultures than these events.

I think a lot of communities in Birmingham have little interest or involvement is things happening away from their immediate community, this is more a choice of the people in that community, not through any social barriers put up to stop them being involved.

[Handsworth Wood Villa]

In July 2001 Bradford was a city on the edge.

A few weeks earlier, its football club had been relegated from the Premier League, the start of a rapid descent down the divisions and to the brink of extinction.

But the demise of the debt-ridden team was by no means the city's only problem.

Racial tensions in this deprived corner of West Yorkshire were intensifying.

Stoked by confrontations between the Anti-Nazi League and various far-right groups, things finally boiled over into three days of rioting between the large Asian population and sections of the white working-class majority.

Hundreds were injured, millions of pounds worth of damage was caused, and 200 jail sentences were handed down. Bradford, it appeared, was one of the most divided communities in Britain.

But 12 years on, tensions between segregated neighbourhoods have eased, and a footballing fairytale is helping to heal old wounds.

The tough, terraced streets which surround Valley Parade in the largely Muslim district of Manningham were one of the areas worst affected by the riots.

Now, many of the youngsters who play for Manningham All-Stars,   a predominantly Asian grassroots football club, are regulars at Bradford City matches. Several are lucky enough to be going to the final at Wembley.

"It's brought the city together," says Khalil Hussein, a social inclusion worker who runs the club.

"It doesn't matter if you're black, white, Asian, whatever. You either support Bradford City or you don't, and most of us do. More still needs to be done, but football has the power to unite, and that's what's happened here.

"At weekends you'll see 100 kids playing football here, from every community. It's one of the most diverse sets of lads anywhere in Yorkshire."

There's a limit to what Bradford's heroics on the pitch can achieve of course. Parts of the post-industrial city centre are desperately in need of development. A large area has been cleared for a long-awaited new shopping complex, but it has yet to arrive, and unemployment is a major problem in an area hit harder than most by the tough economic times.

But there is a genuine sense that the football club's underdog spirit has helped unite those who live here.

"The whole city's been lifted by it," says Bradford City's co-chairman Mark Lawn.

"Whites, Asians, everyone. And everyone is clamouring for a ticket. It's a miracle. It proves that the underdog can win."

Terry Yorath played for and managed Bradford and still lives a few miles away in Leeds.

"When I was there you'd hardly get any Asians watching a game," he says.

"But I remember one Sunday morning when I was manager. I went into the ground to do some office work. I heard a noise, looked out of my office window, and there were 100 Asians kids having a game on the pitch. They'd jumped over a wall to get in. It's a myth they don't like the game.

"Bradford is a unique place. Local politicians have been promising the city a bright new future, new buildings, and yet nothing had happened. It's taken the football team to do that. The city deserved this."

Three years ago British Pakistani Zesh Rehman  captained Bradford and gave a generation of local Muslim youngsters the sporting role model they needed.

But today, Bradford residents of every race are united in support of the unlikely underdogs that galvanised a city and charmed the sport at large.

The only colour on their minds? Claret and amber.

Capital One Cup final: Bradford unite for Wembley date

[martin o`who??]

Cant we just leave the social engineering to politicians and the BBC. Nothing stopping anyone from paying at the door just like the rest of us, if they dont want to thats their choice, and remember the saying, "You can lead a horse to water but you cant make it drink".

[Des Little]

Make tenner a ticket, let us stand behind the goals (with modified safe standing) and serve beer all through the game. Works in Germany and they get full houses, job done. Next!

[PeterWithesShin]

Make it a tender a ticket, let us stand behind the goals (with modified safe standing) and serve beer all through the game. Works in Germany and they get full houses, job done. Next!

How much is a tender?