Sporting Bengal, a side rooted London’s Bangladeshi community, are currently playing just four rungs below the Blue Square Premier on the footballing ladder.
As footballing milestones go it probably won’t rank up there with the first FA Cup final or England’s World Cup win, but the acceptance of an east London amateur team into the ranks of the Kent League marks a breakthrough of no little significance for one section of the footballing fraternity.
When Sporting Bengal United FC, from Mile End in the London borough of Tower Hamlets, lined up against teams such as Maidstone United and Beckenham Town in 2003, they became the first predominantly Asian football team to play at such a high level of the non-league game.
The Kent League is one rung down from the Ryman League and a significant step up the football pyramid from Bengal’s previous position in the London Intermediate League.
The club, formed in 1996, are essentially a representative side for the Bangladeshi Football Association UK, drawing many of their players from the 29 teams in the League Bangla held in the summer. They are regarded as the top Asian team in the country, and this season they reached the Preliminary Round of the FA Cup.
Asian community
“Just the thought of a side from the Asian community playing in the FA Cup is amazing,” says Suroth Miah, a former player and current chair of the club.
“This promotion is very important for us, but it’s more important for the Asian community. Young Asians will see they can play in the mainstream football system and other Asian teams will think that this level is not that far beyond them.”
Bengal started in the London Asian Football League but, after winning the double two years in a row and the league three times, they soon realised they needed to test themselves against tougher opposition. It was the sort of move much encouraged by those seeking to shift Asian football and Asian footballers from their relatively marginal, community-based, position.
Miah is all too aware of the various “Asians in football” campaigns and initiatives that have bounced into being over the last ten years or so. Indeed, he’s involved in the FA’s working group on the subject and Sporting Bengal has links with West Ham’s Asian players’ programme.
'The time has come'
With his club’s ascendance, Miah believes “the time has come for Asian football”. “The 2002 World Cup showed that Asian players can live with the best,” he says. “You don’t need to be a six-foot-plus blond to play good football.”
Although lots of Asian youngsters now get picked up by professional clubs’ academies, Miah still believes there’s “something going wrong” at that level. “Pro clubs have got to change their thinking,” he says.
“Just because a lad is five foot eight or nine doesn’t mean they can’t be a top player. We’ll probably be the smallest team in the Kent League, but we’ll be one of the most skilful and the quickest.”
As for the Kent League’s indigenous football com¬munity, it seems keen to welcome the latest sign of the slow coming of Asian football. “I think it’ll give their league a boost,” says Miah. “The interest has already gone up and clubs are anticipating a rise in crowds. We’re a marketable product, but we’re not just a token gesture.”
Excerpt from When Saturday Comes
