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

[Des Little]

Don't you know? It's ten pounds (winky thing)

[Stu]

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".

Well I'm guessing the racism on the terraces stopped certain minorities from going to the football. The image of the skin-headed, white racist hooligan is only just starting to wear off for football, and for some people it will never vanish entirely.

[olaftab]

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".

Yes agreed however if you start whipping the horse when it's drinking water than the horse is not going drink! We don't need to do anything special we just have to ensure that racial abuse is totally eliminated that's all.

[olaftab]

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".

Well I'm guessing the racism on the terraces stopped certain minorities from going to the football. The image of the skin-headed, white racist hooligan is only just starting to wear off for football, and for some people it will never vanish entirely.

Exactly as Stu said.

[Zakk Fatt]

I am proud that there is no racism at Villa, I have watched Scottish Football and been shocked at some of the racist comments leveled at black players north of the border.

I agree with the majority of comments about getting the kids into Villa Park at an early age, one thing I will say though is that the 'Glory Support' of Sky TV's big 4, Liverpool and any London Club is only because the kids haven't ever gone to a game.

When I came to the Villa, I wasn't a football fan but the feeling of being in the Holte and being part of the roaring crowd made me a Villan for life after about 2 minutes of walking onto the terraces.

I learned to love football because of the Holte, not because I loved football but because I belonged and still belong. The kids wearing the tops on our Birmingham streets of Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal and soon I'm sure to start seeing Man City don't actually belong to anything yet, just marketing that's all.

I feel sorry for them, one nation controlled by the media.

Get the kids into our stadium on a match day when we are all in fine voice and those plastic tops will be consigned to the bottom drawer in the majority of cases.  They can then embark on the lifelong love and torture that we are all both proudly part of and sometimes unfortunately stuck with.

I don't love football, I love the Villa. So will they when they learn to belong.

[Handsworth Wood Villa]

Why Asian fans shun clubs like Oldham and Burnley

It is a freezing cold Sunday morning but that has not deterred the boys from Red Star Bengal from attending a football coaching session in Oldham.

The club was set up by members of the town's large Bangladeshi community in 1988 with the youngsters aged from seven to 14 and their dads passionate for "the beautiful game".

But that passion does not extend to their local club, Oldham Athletic.

Like other North West clubs outside the Premier League only about 1% of the home support comes from the town's Asian community, which makes up 20% of the local population.

It is a similar story in places like Burnley or Preston.

Interest in the game appears to be strong, dispelling myths that Asians neither like football nor play the game.

At Red Star Bengal's, Riazuddin, 12 said: "It's fun and you play with your friends. I'm better at football than cricket."

His friend, 14-year-old Nazman, added: "I've been coming for a couple of years now. I like playing with the older boys, it makes me feel good and I enjoy the football."

Shelim Islam, who brings his son with him to the session every week, said: "I'm very passionate about football, whether I'm playing or watching.

"It makes you very tense, there's just a buzz around it."

But according to Idrees Ali, a coach with the Red Star Bengal, there are several reasons why Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis do not go to matches at local clubs like Oldham.

"When you go back to the old days, there was a lot of issues around racism and I think some people still think an element of it still exists," he said.

"It is also expensive and a lot of our people work in restaurants and many are taxi drivers, so they have work commitments too."

A straw poll at Oldham's recent League One game against Hartlepool suggested there were no Asian fans in the 3,000 gate.

Club secretary Neil Joy believes this has less to do with racism than the presence of Premier League football in Manchester.

He said: "There are reasons why Asians don't come and one of them is that they are not used to going to football, although, a lot do support the Premier League clubs.

"Our fan base needs to reflect the community in which we operate, that is our ultimate objective."

Burnley's chief executive Lee Hoos believes in these cash-strapped times smaller clubs could have their revenue boosted by this untapped fan base.

"It is an important consideration, we need to engage with the community and we have started activities but we are in the early stages," he said.

"One of the suggestions that came to me was to take our staff to the mosque for diversity training.

"It's not about trying to get the community to come here, it's about us going out into the community."

Abdul Hamid, a member of Red Star Bengal, believes Oldham are doing a lot of good work with the community, but he has thrown out a challenge to the bosses who run the game.

"One day, when we have an Asian player at Latics, a lot of Asian people will flock to the club to support him."

[bertlambshank]

Do you just search the Internet looking for shite like this,waiting for someone to bite?

[danlanza]

Do you just search the Internet looking for shite like this,waiting for someone to bite?

This. Cheers Bert.

[Smirker]

I've seen quite a lot of ethnic minorities at Villa Park this season tbh. One game I was sat next to an Oriental looking man with his girlfriend and in front of me were two Asians and then four or five black lads all together.

I think though, that football culture is more a white thing.

[VillaBobby]

Why does the ethnicity of the crowd need to be changed?

[Percy McCarthy]

Why does the ethnicity of the crowd need to be changed?

It is surely desirable that attendances increase, and one way to do that is to attract more people from ethnic minorities.

[VillaBobby]

Why does the ethnicity of the crowd need to be changed?

It is surely desirable that attendances increase, and one way to do that is to attract more people from ethnic minorities.

I don't believe that was the original question?

I find it all a little racist to suggest we need to recruit anyone on the basis of their ethnicity.

If we want to increase attendance's then we need a better team. The fan base already exists, the club just need to give them a reason to come back, not create a new one.

[dave.woodhall]

Why does the ethnicity of the crowd need to be changed?

It is surely desirable that attendances increase, and one way to do that is to attract more people from ethnic minorities.

I don't believe that was the original question?

I find it all a little racist to suggest we need to recruit anyone on the basis of their ethnicity.

If we want to increase attendance's then we need a better team. The fan base already exists, the club just need to give them a reason to come back, not create a new one.

So we should just ignore every other potential new supporter?

[cdward]

Why does the ethnicity of the crowd need to be changed?

It is surely desirable that attendances increase, and one way to do that is to attract more people from ethnic minorities.

I don't believe that was the original question?

I find it all a little racist to suggest we need to recruit anyone on the basis of their ethnicity.

If we want to increase attendance's then we need a better team. The fan base already exists, the club just need to give them a reason to come back, not create a new one.

I agree, a successful team will attract supporters representative of all the minorities you want

[pauliewalnuts]

Why does the ethnicity of the crowd need to be changed?

It is surely desirable that attendances increase, and one way to do that is to attract more people from ethnic minorities.

I don't believe that was the original question?

Well, it kind of was, wasn't it?

The obvious inference from the subject being discussed is that we don't attract enough attendees from racial minorities (especially when you consider the community around Villa Park).

Even before you get into the pros and cons of targetting specific communities, there's the fact that we need all the help we can get in filling our ground, which is what Percy said.

Honestly, I can say that the increase in the numbers of Asian fans attending our matches is one of the things that makes me happiest about our support these days. I have friends who support Newcastle and Sunderland, and they get hardly any Asian fans at their games.

I go to our matches and see - nowhere near enough, but it's a start - lots of Asian fans there.

Aston Villa is about Brummies, it is a Brummie institution, and the people of Birmingham - given that we are by far the second most racially diverse city in this country after London, which is itself the most racially diverse city in Europe, and possibly the world - are of a variety of ethnic and racial backgrounds.

I want the club to reflect the city as much as it can, and I want Brummies of  Indian, Pakistani, Jamaican, West Indian, Eastern European, whatever you like, descent to think that this is their club as well.

Nobody knows what the men who made this club great would want, but I'd take a guess that visionaries of the likes of McGregor, were they around today, would want the same thing too.

I know you could probably say that sounds woolly and Guardian reader-ish, and you'd probably have a point, but I genuinely believe it, so hey ho.