Baljit Rihal shares his journey from corporate life at British Airways to becoming a pioneering Sikh football agent and advocate for South Asian representation in football. His story highlights how refusing to accept limitations and embracing one's identity can lead to transformative change in spaces where representation has traditionally been lacking.
• Meeting at British Airways and launching the Asian Football Awards as a catalyst for entering football
• Becoming a licensed football agent after being told it would be too difficult (with only a 14% pass rate)
• Running football agency as a side hustle before making the leap to full-time in 2020
• Challenging stereotypes about South Asians in football that have limited opportunities
• Discussing the significant underrepresentation of South Asians in professional football despite making up 9% of UK population
• Celebrating breakthrough moments like Sarit Binning captaining England's Under-16s and Sarpreet Singh playing for New Zealand at the World Cup
• Advocating for policy changes to allow Overseas Citizens of India to represent the Indian national team
• Emphasizing the importance of self-belief and creating your own opportunities rather than waiting for permission
Find Baljit Rihal on Instagram and LinkedIn @BaljitRihal to follow his ongoing advocacy work and the upcoming Asian Football Awards in 2026.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Right, so how are you ?
Speaker 1 (00:23):
I'm doing good, joel, and good to see you.
Yes, after God knows how manyyears, really good to speak to
you, sort of the other week.
Yeah, obviously we've beenkeeping in touch over sort of
LinkedIn posts, updates etc.
But really good to speak to youand see you.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
How did we actually meet first of all?
I mean, yes, it was withBritish Airways.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I think we were both working at British Airways and
probably it was on the street atBritish Airways at Waterside,
probably me going for acappuccino, one of the many
breaks a day that I had Probablya mutual friend, and we just
got chatting about what we'redoing and I remember you sort of
speaking about the fact thatyou do music and obviously I'm
(01:08):
interested in music.
I think at that stage is, youknow, we had probably kicked off
the asian football awards atthat stage, so that's when my
journey sort of in asianfootball began.
So that's how I think we met,seeing what you have done.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I genuinely feel proud.
I'm kind of like, yeah, he'sone of us thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
I mean it sort of uh means a lot.
You know, I I do get peoplesometimes messaging me or if I
see them at events, I was likeyou know what we wouldn't have
ever thought of?
Seeing sadat that's the firstthing they say.
So that being a football agentand just sort of going back to
that time sort of, when we metat waterside and when you were
at ba.
So I stayed on at BA for anumber of years after you sort
(01:47):
of left.
But football was always sort ofa bit of a side hustle, started
off as a side hustle.
We did the Asian FootballAwards and it was really the
Asian Football Awards and thatnetwork, access to the network,
access to the footballing bodies, access to the network, access
to the footballing bodies,accessing to football players
(02:08):
which really sort of helped inmy sort of I wouldn't say it was
an aspiration to become afootball agent, it just happened
.
It actually just happened, andI thought I did the exam back in
2011, passed the exam at thattime, and then it was only until
the launch of the Indian SuperLeague, which was actually in
2014, did I then start to startto do the agency.
That's when that happened.
So prior to that, it was justsort of a certification I had in
(02:31):
the background, probablythinking what the hell do I do
with it?
I don't know anyone who lookslike me who's doing this.
And it was, just like I said,on the back of the Asian
Football Awards 2012, and thatwhole event, I believe, was my
sort of um um, second comingrenaissance, if you will,
because up until that point itwas just like I'm going through
(02:53):
life, just like every typicalSouth Asian Punjabi, that they
go through life, they get adegree, they get a master's my
case of master's you know, youget a job, you get married, then
you get a job, you get married,then you get a job which you
feel is going to be a job forlife, and that was really how I
thought my life was going to be.
And then the Asian FootballAwards launching that, that
(03:13):
really opened my eyes and itreally sort of said to me listen
, you can do whatever you wantto do.
And I actually believe I'm sortof a bit of a late bloomer, a
late developer.
During school, like I was, Iwas sort of like very popular
because of sport, because offootball, but I just sort of
cruised through everything.
Everything was just like acruise, never worked hard in
(03:35):
terms of my exams, et cetera,but I sort of cruised through
things and I really think, aftermy master's and sort of going
into the world of work, Istarted to bloom.
I started to do things that Iwouldn't have thought I would
have been doing.
And it's just about the beliefand it's just about thinking to
myself well, I can do thesethings.
I see other people doing thesethings.
(03:55):
Why can't I do these things?
And sometimes, and perhaps forother people, perhaps their
background, perhaps theirheritage, perhaps the way they
look, their identity, perhapsthat has held them back.
And I kept thinking to myselfwell, I'm actually going to use
this to my advantage.
I'm not going to let this holdmy back.
Hold me back, use it to myadvantage, because people will
(04:16):
then know who I am.
Who is the belgian regal?
Yes, we know who he is.
He's the guy that was on skysports news.
He was the seek.
He is the.
He's the Sikh guy that was onSky Sports News.
He is the Sikh football agent.
And then even with India as well.
So obviously, india blossomedin terms of my relationship with
India, and it was always fromthe Indian perspective of we
know who Baljit is.
(04:37):
How do we know who Baljit is?
Because of the way he looks,he's on social media, he's
appeared on mainstream TV.
We know who he is.
Then that played to my advantagebecause people within europe
european football agents,european sort of clubs they
would know who I was because ofthe fact that I've been on tv
and because I'm so sort of loudon social media anyway with
(04:59):
regard to my advocacy.
So they knew who I was and I'measily identified.
So, from that perspective, likehow I said about being a late
bloomer, it was about mestarting to become, even though
I've always been proud of who Iam and the way I look but it's
about now sort of blossoming, ifit were.
Others encourage others, southasians, especially within the
football space that listen, youneed to be proud of who you are,
(05:26):
don't let anyone say to youthat you can't do what you want
to do.
And that's how I sort of feltover the last sort of 10, 15
years in terms of me as mypersonal development no, um,
there's a lot of similaritythere.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
I think anyone who's listening to this um
particularly if they are, youknow, from an asian background
you said you just kind ofdropped into agent world- how
did that really happen?
Speaker 1 (05:58):
though actually there was actually a moment, I think
it was at a networking eventprior to the Asian Football
Awards.
I think it was, or it mighthave actually been, at the Asian
Football Awards, the first oneand I was speaking to an agent,
an established agent, I won'tsay who they are Having a bit of
a conversation.
As you do networking, hi, whatdo you do?
(06:19):
Humble G, I do it.
So I said, what do you do?
I'm so-and-so, I'm a footballagent.
And I said to them oh, that'squite interesting.
You know, I think I might havea look at that.
And their response was uh,actually, general war, um, it's
a bit hard to pass, uh, in termsof the exam, so I don't think
really you'd be able to do it.
So I said, well, that's a bitof a strange thing to say a
(06:42):
networking thing, becauseusually when you meet people you
just say, yeah, you should gofor it.
You know, go to this website,have a look.
So I thought that was a bitstrange.
Anyway, just that sort oflingered in my head for a while.
And then I remember either thatnight or the next day I went
back and looked on the FAAwebsite and it said, about how
you apply to become an agent.
So I did all the checks, I didthe insurance, because at that
(07:05):
time you had to do insurance andthen I applied to sit to do the
exam.
Okay, I remember before I didthe exam I was sort of reading
online and they said the passrate was 14, one, one, four,
yeah, at that at that time.
And then I sort of went back towhat that guy said.
Maybe the way he articulatedhimself was incorrect, but he
(07:28):
was probably referring to thefact that it's very hard to pass
, but still, it's not somethingthat I think you should say to
anyone 14%.
I then sort of got all thematerial at the time off the FA
website.
I remember speaking to a FAsorry, a football lawyer at the
time off the FA website.
I remember speaking to afootball lawyer at the time who
was giving me some advice and Iremember I was studying for that
(07:49):
exam and I can't rememberstudying that hard since my
master's.
It was just it was talkingabout compensation.
So say, for example, if therewas a player who moves to a club
at a certain time, how muchcompensation would the other
club be due?
X, y, z, and then reading sortof laws and statutes etc.
(08:11):
Anyway, I did the exam and Ipassed.
And I did that because I justwanted to prove that person
wrong, even though I didn'tinteract with that person ever
again, wanted to sort of showthat you shouldn't let anyone
tell you that you can't dosomething, don't let others
limit your dreams and beliefs,and that was one of the like how
I said this sort of latebloomer in me, that was one of
(08:33):
those sort of milestone moments,me sort of passing that exam
and I.
I was doing this all stillwhilst work for ba.
I was doing this in thebackground.
This was sort of like study inthe evening, study during lunch
times, if you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
This is what I was doing and I was always having
that, but I always held in myhead that you still need to hold
down a steady job.
I just had that in my headSteady job.
Let this be a bit of a sidehustle, and this was a side
hustle years before side hustlesbecame the thing you know like.
Now everyone's talking aboutside hustle, side hustle, and
(09:10):
many of our people anyway, manypeople from the south asian
background you know, indians,asians, etc.
Have been doing side hustlessince they came into this
country.
They've been doing it.
They've been doing um, and itwas just something I had on the
side.
It was really good and I wasattending all these events but,
like I said, I didn't doanything with my football agent
(09:31):
license until the start of theIndian Super League.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
So it was quite intense.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Oh yeah, it was intense.
It was intense and I'm thinkingto myself what have I got
myself into?
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Because I think there's definitely from my end.
You know, when we hear aboutfootball agents, right?
It's kind of like they won upfrom estate agents.
Yeah they haven't got a goodpress.
But to hear now that there'sactually quite a little bit of
grouch and legwork and duediligence that's required just
to enable someone to be an agent, I mean, that's news to me.
(10:06):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Yeah, anyway.
So, for example, these are theold times in terms of, like I
said, when I passed the exam in2011,.
Then I got my license.
But what used to happen was, inagencies, there would always be
one at that time failedlicensed agent.
And then there would be a wholelot of other people who perhaps
you would associate as being astate agent, like a bit sort of
(10:31):
you know, dodgy, et cetera, etcetera, yeah, and they would
work for that agent, but all ofthe paperwork would go through
that agent.
So hard work, scouting, etcetera, et cetera, all the sort
of whining and dining and sortof, et cetera, et cetera, but it
would always go back throughthe agent.
(10:51):
So that's why agents at thattime were actually considered to
be quite valuable.
But there was me sort of veryindependent, yeah, not even
thinking about, shall I go andapproach these big agencies?
I wasn't even thinking aboutthat.
I was just thinking, right,I've got my license, maybe I
won't do anything with it.
And every year up until,obviously, the Indian Super
League kicked off, I was justblindly renewing my fee,
(11:12):
renewing my insurance.
Yeah, just blindly, in thebackground, and that was
possible because of the job, theday job that I was doing and
there was always, you know,there was always aspirations to
think okay, you know, maybe Ican look at South Asian players
in the UK, maybe I can approachthem and say, listen, let me
represent you.
That was the initial thought,but then, like I said, it was
just in the background, it wasjust there and I would use it
(11:34):
sometimes when I went tonetworking events, when people
would ask you know, who are you,what do you do?
I didn't want to say yeah, myname is Baljit rehau and I work
for british airways.
You know, I wanted to say, um,my name's baljit rehau and I'm
an fa licensed football agent.
You know, it's got a nice ringto it, right, and it's sort of a
bit it was hard for it.
So that's the reason why, um,that was sort of happening and
(11:57):
that was in the background.
But going back to your question,I remember you sort of said
about how did your family takeit?
It, to be honest, it reallywasn't a thing because of the
fact that, um, you know, Iworked for BA and then when I
decided to leave BA, I just sortof said to them, because they
knew this is something I wasdoing in the background.
They knew sort of every year orevery other year the Asian
(12:21):
football boards is happening, sothat's something that I'm doing
, um, and then the agency staffstarted to sort of work in India
when I sort of decided to leaveBA.
It really wasn't a thing.
It's just like Abuljit's doinghis thing, right, doing
something you know and obviouslyin the background as well, as
you sort of progress throughyour career.
(12:41):
Obviously you build up what Idid.
I built up a property portfolio, so there's that I'm looking
after as well as doing thissports stuff.
Has it been tough?
Yes, you know it's not allroses, you know, after you leave
sort of a steady job.
I've always found the work I doin terms of the proper job, as
people say very easy but at thesame time very boring and very
(13:04):
mind-numbing.
And it was at a point wheresometimes I used to sit in
meetings and I'm sure this hashappened to you as well, joel as
well.
But I used to sit in meetingsand I used to be sitting there
thinking, well, gee, what areyou doing here?
What are you doing here?
Yeah, you're going to sort ofgrow up, as you know, so to
speak, and no one's going toknow who you are, you're just
(13:26):
going to be a number.
And I thought there's so muchmore to life than this.
There's so much more to lifethan this, and I would say
probably.
I sat on about 40 or 50meetings having that same
thought.
Having that same thought whatthe hell are you doing here?
You should be somewhere else.
You need to be making adifference.
You need to be sitting in aboardroom somewhere, a football
(13:48):
club, talking about X, y and Z.
I just kept thinking.
I kept thinking and thenobviously COVID hit and when
that hit, there was a lot ofchange and there was an
opportunity at work to takevoluntary redundancy.
I wasn't happy there anyway,because of the fact that I
thought this isn't what I wantedto do.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Oh, yeah, what was that?
Speaker 1 (14:08):
This was in 2020, I think, Okay, okay, 2020 this was
.
And then I thought to myself doyou know what this could be the
time?
You know, it was very uncertain.
It was very uncertain times,obviously, because people were
saying you know, the job marketwas so uncertain and and I just
thought now's the time because Ijust didn't want to look back
(14:31):
and think to myself that Ididn't make that leap.
Yeah, and it's been hard.
There's no sort of two waysabout it.
It's been tough and especiallyin the agency world and
especially doing events etc.
There are peaks and there aretroughs, and when there are
peaks, those peaks are so highand when there are troughs they
are so, so low and it can reallysort of test you as an
(14:54):
individual.
However, I don't have thatfeeling like I had when I was in
the corporate world.
I don't want to go to work on aMonday.
I don't.
What was your support frameworklike?
I think support frameworkobviously at home, you know
supportive parents, supportivewife, you know the kids
obviously are growing up andthey're obviously excited
because dad works in football.
(15:15):
But that was the support really.
So family for me is number one.
Family support was being, youknow, great.
You know I've got a good sort ofsocial circle in terms of
friends, but yeah, it's just andI think internal support from
myself, sort of mentally to say,listen, you can do this, you
don't want to sort of feel downabout going to work and even
(15:36):
though the work I was neverinterested in the work I did,
I'll be very, very interested,very honest with you, but I
always loved that social aspectof work.
Yeah, very fun times, you know,build up a very strong network
of friends, sometimes likeriding friends, you know, in
(15:57):
terms of sport, doing someventures and obviously the added
advantage of being able totravel.
So that's the reason for meabout why I was still going to
work, but there was never anyinterest in the work I actually
did.
Um, it was more around sort ofa stable environment, you know,
good social sort of networkthere and obviously you build up
(16:19):
the people skills and the factthat it allowed me to do so much
more outside of work.
That was, that was the realthing for me.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
So I guess, in terms of support framework, yeah, the
day job as it was provided, ifyou like, at least one aspect of
those foundational things whichenabled you to get on with
things that made you smile.
Yeah, um, did you have a notioneven way back then?
I'm doing this for thecommunity as well as I'm doing
this for belgique, but how manyfolks, and kids in particular,
(16:50):
are going to see a visible sikhman doing this thing where you
know you don't even see anyplayers?
I find it incredibly odd thatwe are so underrepresented.
If anyone wants to turn aroundand say to me there isn't a
south asian person good enoughto play professional football,
(17:10):
let alone play in the premierleague, yeah, I don't buy that.
I do not buy that one bit.
I could be wrong.
I could be wrong because I'mnot in that space.
You are, yeah, what's your takeon?
Speaker 1 (17:22):
So, just sort of rolling back a little bit, you
sort of said why did I do it?
Was it for Abuljeet?
Was it for the community?
It started off being I justwanted to do something different
.
And it started off being forthe community because of the
fact that I, you know, lovefootball so much.
You know played since I was infirst school, you know, always
in teams, and football was mylove, and I remember going back
(17:46):
right to sort of first schooland middle school.
The only thing we used to thinkabout and the reason why we
used to wake up in the morningto go to school was because we
knew we were going to playfootball break times, at lunch
times, etc.
So it started off being for thecommunity because of the
underrepresentation.
Now, even before I got into thissort of South Asian space,
(18:07):
there were people talking aboutwhy there aren't any Asians, as
they used to say then aren'tthere any Asians in football?
Yeah, so this conversation washappening way before I got into
it.
But then when I started to getinto it and again, like I said,
pre the Asian Football Awards,we were sort of working with
some of these clubs the Chelsea,I think in 2009, started off a
(18:29):
trials called the Chelsea AsianStar and they specifically had
sort of open days and trials forthose from an Asian background,
for them to come, to come toStamford Bridge or to the Cobham
training ground and for them tobe in and amongst people who
look like them for them to feelcomfortable.
That's how I got involved,because there was a club which
(18:50):
was associated with BA atConcord, it was called the
Rangers at BA Clubs and it wasthrough a friend who was taking
some of the boys over to AsianStar and that's where it all
started.
So it was the conversation I hadwith peter kenyon, the then ceo
of the chelsea, which reallysparked in my mind, I think,
minister of asian football.
So that's how that started.
(19:13):
So again, it was for thecommunity and in a sense it's
still and it always will be forthe community.
But then it started to becomeabout how can I develop as an
individual, how can I develop,obviously, in the football
agency space, in the event space, and then it became in into the
india space as well, into inthe indian sports market.
But then going back and yousort of saying about people who
(19:35):
look like us, people from southasian backgrounds in football.
There have been south asians inprofessional football you can
count them on one hand though,yeah, yeah, you can, there have
been, there are and therecertainly will be.
But, as you've quite rightlymentioned, they are few and very
far between.
Numbers have increased, butvery slowly, too slowly, if you
(19:57):
ask me.
And again, when you look at theSouth Asian diaspora within the
UK, when you look at statisticsand I think, if memory serves
me correctly, I think 9% of theUK, in terms of from the last
census, are from a South Asianbackground Now, if you look at
fortunately they are notreflected in the English game um
(20:22):
, you obviously get thingsaround south asians well, they
prefer the cricket, which isabsolute rubbish.
Of course, south asians lovecricket, but in terms of
british-born south asians, theirfirst love is football.
It's a fact, it's an absolutefact.
So why those numbers have notbeen reflected is, in my mind,
(20:42):
um, a massive, sort of massiveissue.
But, like I said, there havebeen South Asians who have been
playing football.
There have been South Asianswho have been playing football
since the 1930s.
There was an Indian who playedfor Celtic in the 1930s and then
, sort of fast forward to theend of the 60s, sort of early
(21:07):
60s there was a player calledRajinder Singh Verdi.
He changed his name to RogerVerdi.
He was signed by Bobby Robsonat Ipswich.
And again you speak to him andhe said well, I didn't get as
far as I wanted to because ofthe fact that I was brown.
I had to go to the USA and heplayed in the NASL the likes of
(21:27):
LA Beckenbauer Best.
And he played there because hethought to himself that no one's
going to ask what I look likeand he did well out there, but
he couldn't do well here.
And then, sort of fast forward,there was a player I think
played for Preston, also playedfor Leighton Orient, ricky
Heppelit.
He was brilliant.
(21:48):
And then after that there areplayers Zesh Rahman played for
Fulham in the Premier League,michael Chopra played for
Newcastle and Sunderland in thePremier League, then you've got
Danny Bart, and then it goes onand on and on.
Jan Dander, and now there's awhole host of sort of youngsters
now who are sort of there,there or thereabouts now I can
remember, um, some quiteprominent names, players, yeah
(22:13):
and saying Indians can't playbecause, yeah, they eat curry.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Yeah, it's the wrong food, and literally, for anyone
who's listening to this, thatwas what was being said, and
quite openly you can't playfootball because you eat curry.
Yeah, and you're not fit enoughand you haven't got the skills
for it, etc.
Etc.
Etc.
And so it went on.
Yeah, things are changing, butyou know it's not happening
(22:38):
quick enough.
I'm impatient, I'm naturallyimpatient and I'm not having to
dig at you, right?
As I've said already right fromthe outset, I admire you
incredibly in what you have done, because that's for me, that is
where the bar is.
Yeah, for someone to do whatyou have done.
They've got some faces, I guessin my world now, in the design
community, just own theirparticular space, which is
(23:02):
fantastic, and that's happening.
I think it goes back to almostthe catalyst, where you were
told yeah, it's a really, reallytough thing and maybe you
shouldn't be going when I'mtalking about becoming an agent.
I think there's something very,very particular about first
generation, second generationimmigrant stock and also Punjabi
(23:25):
.
If somebody tells you no, very,very true.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Yeah, you're just gonna be like uh-huh, watch me
yeah, yeah, very true, watch meI mean going back to those
stereotypes, and thosestereotypes were very prevalent,
yeah, in terms of peopleoutwardly saying about the fact
that either you're not bigenough or you're eating the
wrong foods, or your parents aregoing to say, to a certain age,
(23:51):
you have to stop playingfootball now, because now you
need to go and do your exams.
Yes, all of that stuff wasthere, but again, it's about
those inbuilt stereotypes.
So, like I would say, forexample, the scouts yeah, the
scouts are the conduit betweenyou as a child player and
potentially becoming pro.
(24:12):
Okay, they are the king maker,as it were, and they had.
They have inbuilt stereotypesabout south asians.
Now, were there people toeducate them?
To say, south asians come inall shapes and sizes.
If you look at those from theIndian subcontinent, for example
, those who are from the north,they are rather tall, big boned
(24:36):
and actually fit in with whatyou perhaps are looking for.
Ok, but then the whole mythsaround this bust.
When you look at Spain winningthe World Cup, when you look at
Argentina winning the World Cup,you look at their physique and
you look at how they play.
So, from that perspective, yes,there are South Asians who have
faced that in the past, butcertainly since I've been in
(24:59):
this space and there was talkabout people saying that parents
are holding the kids back.
I'm very, very sure that hadhappened, because there are
people who are sort of mucholder than me who would say that
I was really good at footballbut my dad said I can't, I can't
go and pursue this becauseeither I've got to go to
university or I've got to nowwork in the shop.
(25:19):
Yeah, and of course there wasan element of that.
Of course there was, butcertainly since the time I've
been involved, south asianparents have are so supportive
of the kids who show the talentand they are driving their kids
to these games.
They are spending the time.
They're spending the time andthe money supporting their kids.
There are, there are.
(25:39):
There are so much more of thisand I encourage parents, for
example, whose kids have made itpro.
I have said to them let's speakabout your journey, let others
hear about what it is, what ittakes, what you've been through.
So things are changing.
I mean things have beenchanging for a while, and
especially from the South Asianside, in terms of what we are
(26:02):
able to control, I think we arein such a great position that
there are no more excuses.
There needs to be a steadyfactory of those from a South
Asian background who are goingthrough the academies and who
are becoming pro.
But we need to be realisticabout things, because a kid,
irrespective of their background, can go into an academy, but
(26:23):
the percentage of those who turnpro again is very, very low.
So again, I mean I've said thisnumerous times it's a numbers
game, but the more we can getinto the academies, potentially,
the more we can have ending upbeing pro.
Yeah, you're gonna be in it towin it.
Yeah, the whole and the wholeissue that people say to you
where, where do you think theissue is?
(26:44):
And I said I actually believethe issue is that transition
from grassroots into the academy.
That is where I think we reallyneed to concentrate is that
aspect of things, because oncewe can start, once we can nail
that, we can then start totheoretically, I feel, have more
south asians on our screens.
Because ultimately, when peoplesay about Asians in football,
(27:07):
people are saying, well, I can'tsee anyone who looks like me.
Why aren't there any Asians infootball?
We see Asians playing in theEngland cricket team.
We see Asians excelling in allfields, in business, in media,
for example, we see South Asiannewscasters, we see South Asian
sports presenters yeah, we seeit there, but why aren't we
(27:29):
seeing it on the pitch?
And I understand why.
I understand the feeling.
And again, we would obviouslylike to see a bit of a star
right.
We'd like to see someone who'ssort of prominent, who gets the
news headlines, who gets sort offeatured in media about the guy
who scored three, four goals orthe guy who saved X, y and Z.
(27:51):
Of course we don't see that,but we need to see that churn
and we need to see a steadychurn, Even if it is of the run
of the mill, premier Leagueplayers you know those who are
in the background, but we knowthat they're from a South Asian
background.
Seeing Singh on a shirt seeingknow that they're from a South
Asian background.
Seeing on a shirt, seeing youknow Patel, khan or Mohammed,
for example, will go such a long.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Well, I mean quite topical.
There was a certain young ladywho actually captained England
quite recently.
Was it the under, was it 19s or16s?
Under 16s, I mean, I haven'tgot her name in front of me, my
bad, but that just put a massivesmile on my face.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
And you know me sort of hearing about that.
I obviously knew about hername's Sarit, binning, and Sarit
I sort of knew about becauseshe plays for Wolves.
And there are a number of sortof Asian females, south Asian
females who play for clubs whoare known about, obviously
through the awards.
But when I saw that that shecut in the under six, I just
(28:53):
thought to myself you know whatthis is so brilliant?
Obviously South Asian,obviously Punjabi, obviously
Sikh and a female as well,because obviously now the female
game in football is exploding.
You know, it's really sort ofrising and it's getting a lot of
attraction.
And seeing that, I thought thatwas brilliant and I put that up
on my social media and that blewup on my social media.
(29:17):
It was just unbelievable thatthe number of shares, the number
of likes, the comments, um, andI just thought to myself a good
for her but also, at the sametime, good for all those south
asian girls who are eitherplaying football or those who
aspire to play football.
Because you know I don't liketo use this that often, but you
(29:37):
know they say if you can't seeit, you can't be it.
In one way that's true, becausepeople will see that and
perhaps they will be encouragedto then go and play for that
grassroots team because theyknow Sarit has gone on to the
captain England at under 16s NowI sincerely hope Sarit goes on
and she ends up playing for theLionesses.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
I would sincerely hope that as well, but things
like this make such a hugedifference.
Things like this make such ahuge difference, and those who
aren't associated with the gameas such, like how you said that
you saw that and that put asmile on your face.
The comments I got fromLinkedIn, from various social
media, about how great this is,and I also got some from parents
(30:20):
of kids, females who play,saying, actually, this is just
the boost my daughter needed.
This was just the boost it wasamazing.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
It was amazing, it was amazing.
It's one of the reasons why Imean, who needs another buddy
podcast?
Right, but I've got to thatpoint now where I don't see the
faces that I want to see.
Yeah, and you know, this isn'tabout me, this is about you and
football and seeing that awesomeyoung lady doing what she has
done, achieving what she hasdone, you know, and it will
(30:48):
encourage other boys and girls.
I mean New Zealand.
Correct me if I'm wrong here aswell.
Yeah, we have a Singh playingat the World Cup for New Zealand
.
I don't think that's everhappened before.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
I could be wrong.
No, no, it hasn't.
And so Sarpreet Singh, born andbrought up in New Zealand,
punjabi, he came to prominence.
Actually, he played for NewZealand at the Under-17 World
Cup which was held in India, theone we're in now.
Right, yeah, right.
That is where I got to knowabout who Sarpreet Singh is.
(31:21):
So I thought, okay, great.
I think either two years afterthat he got signed by Bayern
Munich, and I remember when hegot signed by Bayern Munich, I'm
sort of thinking to myself whatthe hell has just happened.
You know, this is such awatershed moment and I thought
this is fantastic.
And I remember seeing thesocial media post of Bayern
Munich and this guy putting onthe Bayern Munich top and he put
(31:45):
it on and there was a view fromthe back and as it went down,
you could see on the back singand it was just like one of
those the goose bump moments andI thought, my God, you know,
we've made it, you know, and Ithought this is going to be that
star.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
I'm getting goosebumps.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
Yeah, this is going to be that star that everyone's
all been yearning for.
I mean, unfortunately, hedidn't do quite well at Bayern
Munich and obviously sort ofwent to the B team and now he's
playing in Portugal, butobviously still representing New
Zealand.
And when they sort of won theirgroup, the OFC, and it was New
Zealand and Arsenal going to theWorld Cup, and I saw because
(32:19):
I'm sort of friends with Sarpyon Instagram and I saw his
Instagram, you know, going tothe World Cup I couldn't see any
media outlets talking aboutthat.
I thought what have they missed?
Or have I missed something here?
You know, I was franticallysort of searching.
You know, sing at the World Cup, you know, blah, blah, blah.
There wasn't anything.
And I decided to put up a poston my social and I remember I
(32:42):
put something up that says forthe culture, for the community,
into be playing at the World Cup, and I put that on my Instagram
.
You know, sort of thinking, youknow it's going to be one that
gets about 100 likes and thatblew up and I tell you this much
, it just went crazy.
And there's me, from a selfishperspective, thinking, all right
, this is increasing my sort ofwears and all that sort of stuff
(33:03):
.
But that blew up and then whenI sort of had a look at the
analytics, the interactions onthat post was 1.1 million and
the appetite for success stoolis especially in sport for South
Asians across the world is huge, and especially in India,
people obviously being excitedthe fact that the guy's a
(33:23):
Punjabi, you know he's got athing in his name he's of Indian
origin, an OCI, straight PR,pio.
It was tremendous and everyonewas sort of saying that's great,
that's great and obviously,listen a touch wood.
Let's hope he stays injury freeand he plays at the 2026 World
Cup, because I'm telling youthis now, new Zealand are going
to have a whole set of new fansduring that World Cup.
(33:46):
That is what differencerepresentation makes.
It's things like this.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
It's going to add to not just the sense of community
but the sense of pride, not justwithin the Punjabi community
also, but the broader SouthAsian community.
And that is now because of thevehicle which is football, that
is global, but as a community, Idon't think we've done enough
right.
We're probably late to the game.
Well, I'm definitely late tothe game, which is why I'm
(34:18):
trying to double down and investmy time and effort and other
things into ventures like this.
But you touched on such abrilliant segway as well, this
whole aspect of uci, right now.
You know.
Now, you know where I'm goingto go.
The organization that'sresponsible, accountable for
(34:38):
football in india, yeah, andthey seem to be steadfast
entrenched in not wanting togive the opportunity to absolute
citizens of india who come invia the oci or another vehicle.
What's your take on that?
Speaker 1 (34:53):
so again, um around, so you may hear me talking about
pio.
So that's the person of indianorigin and oci is an overseas
citizen of india.
So I say citizen in quotes.
This isn't only about football,this is sports-wide, yeah, and
it's a government thing.
So, in terms of they don'tallow dual citizenship, many
(35:17):
other countries do and there areobviously countries I'll give
you an example of Qatar, forexample who have recently sort
of sped up the FIFA rankingsbecause they have allowed dual
citizens or people to take updual citizenship.
So India hasn't or doesn't allowanyone who does not hold an
Indian passport to representthem across any sport.
(35:41):
Our focus, my focus, isobviously football.
Given the interactions I havewith those of a South Asian
background, and especially, inthis case, of an Indian heritage
background, and the Asianfootball, because I've seen it
and I've seen the talent there,I'm sort of thinking why can't I
play for India?
Now, there have been numerouspeople speaking about this and
(36:02):
advocating for this, me beingone of them about why India
should allow people of Indianorigin to play for them, simply
because of the fact that India'sFIFA ranking is so abysmal At
this stage.
From what I recall, the lasttime I looked it was 127.
Now, joel, I can't even name127 countries.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
You put that into context.
The size of the population,population, the segmentation
globally, the volume of peoplewho actually play a door at a.
You know the game that makes nosense, absolutely so.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
So these have been the reasons why I've sort of
mentioned it and I've been quitevocal about it in terms of my
advocacy not only advocacywithin british south asians and
in terms of advocacy not onlyadvocacy within British South
Asians and in terms ofrepresentation, but also around
OCIs and them wanting to play orbeing eligible to play for
India.
Now the issue has been aroundit's a government policy or a
(36:59):
directive that you can'trepresent without having an
Indian passport.
Now this then goes back to lookat those who are either
residing or who were born andbrought in the USA, uk or
wherever got the talent thinkingto themselves listen, I think
I'd like to play for India, andthere've been a number of
players who've been very vocalabout the fact that they would
like to play for India.
(37:19):
Question there on is are theywilling to relinquish their
British passport, us passport,in order to take up an Indian
passport to represent?
This has got a myriad ofobstacles in one way, because if
you are playing for a PremierLeague team, a championship team
or a football team within theUK, if you then relinquish your
(37:40):
British passport and take up anIndian passport, visa ruling
wise, you are not able to playfor your team that you're
playing for, because the rulesare that in order to play in
England, number one, yournational team has to be above 50
, yeah FIFA ranking.
And two, you have had to haveplayed for your international
(38:01):
team a number of times, yeah.
So that would then restrict thelikes of, for example, jan
Dander, who plays for Hearts inthe Scottish Premier League,
danny Bart, who plays in thechampionship for Blackburn.
That would restrict them fromplaying for their own club,
simply because of the fact thatthey don't have correct
citizenship.
So that is why there is areluctance in one way from these
(38:25):
players, because if they thengive up one passport, they have
to take up another passport.
They won't be able to playwhere they excel at or at that
level.
The other thing is that thewhole passport process in India
you have to have lived in Indiafor 365 days before you can
actually start to apply for yourpassport.
What are you going to do inthat three, six, five days?
(38:47):
Where are you going to play?
And then the other thing, alsothere on in, is how long will it
take for that passport then tocome through?
So there could be a period oftwo, three, four years where
you're in limbo right Now.
I recently actually spoke tothe Indian High Commissioner in
London about this and I said youknow there's an issue here.
And he said well, you know,let's have a look at what we can
(39:07):
do and who we can speak to.
I'm not that hopeful, to behonest, but hopefully the
conversation can happen Now.
The other thing could be areIndia, as in general, the Indian
government, are they toostubborn to let in OCIs to
represent India?
Are they thinking to themselveslisten, we've got 1.4 billion
people.
We can't find 11 players from1.4.
(39:30):
It could perhaps be that andagain, this is across all sports
.
But, you see the other nationsQatar, you've even seen
Afghanistan.
Now you're seeing Bangladesh,pakistan, who are doing that,
allowing dual citizenships.
So I don't really see the issue.
And a number of head coacheswho've been in India who are
doing that, allowing dualcitizenships.
So I don't really see the issue.
And a number of head coacheswho have been in India, so the
(39:51):
Indian head coaches, they havebeen asking for this to happen.
They've been saying listen, youknow, we need to improve, we
need to improve our level.
India, to be honest, theystruggle even on the Asian front
.
In terms of the Asianchampionships, my belief is for,
obviously, within my lifetime,I would sincerely hope that
india can qualify for a worldcup, not just as hosts, but sort
(40:13):
of on merit.
How are they able to do that inthe short to medium term?
That is, by allowing people ofindian origin, oci cardholders,
to represent india.
Having an oci in itself, Ibelieve, is a commitment to say
listen, I have Indian heritageand I am an overseas citizen of
India, so why not allow that?
(40:35):
There are certain ways and meansand there are certain things
that the Indian government isable to do, but I believe at
this stage they're a bit toostubborn to allow this to happen
.
It can happen, it can happen.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
The thing that's quite interesting for me is
looking at this from the outside, but with my, if you like,
business design hat on.
Yeah, but I don't think I'd betoo far away from the realms of
truth if I were to suggest that,yeah, there's money in this.
You've got huge proportion ofIndian business owners who have
(41:10):
untold net value.
Are they investing?
I don't see it.
Maybe they are, but I don't seeit.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
Maybe they should be investing and they will.
And they will invest when thenational team starts to do well.
There is an appetite such ahuge appetite in India for
football, especially amongst theyouth, and, as you well know,
india has probably the world'smost rapidly growing middle
(41:40):
class.
People have got so muchdisposable income now in terms
of where do I spend my time, andthere are people who are
looking at alternatives to acricket.
They want more than just acricket and football is, I would
say, something that they areyearning for India to do well.
Now, if the Indian nationalteam starts to do well and you
(42:01):
sort of hit the nail on the headwhen you were speaking about
investment if India were to doso well that they could hit a
World Cup for, for example, theinvestment not only coming out
of India but going into Indiawould be tremendous and the
knock-on effect of that would bethat obviously there'd be more
sort of interest in the nationalteam and that then transpire
(42:24):
into interest into Indiandomestic football.
Yeah, because of the nationalteam he's doing so well, people
will start saying, oh, thatplayer, sahal, who plays for
India, where does he play for?
In India.
Then you will start to get anincrease in investment and
interest in the domestic game,which unfortunately isn't there.
The domestic game in India isrun by corporates.
(42:46):
The ISL Indian Super League isrun by the Imbanis.
So what we need in India is weneed more than that.
We need the government toinvest.
We need them to invest inobviously grassroots facilities.
There needs to be a lot moregoing on.
They need to develop the leaguesystem in India Because
ultimately, like I said, there's1.4 billion people.
(43:08):
There's so much scope to do somuch more in India.
India in itself is 10 differentcountries.
There are people from the northwho perhaps won't understand
those from the south becausethey speak a different language.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
There's 200 plus different languages in that
space.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
The common language in India is actually English.
That's the most common language.
People will be able tounderstand each other.
So there's so much moreinvestment that needs to happen
and understandably, I can.
I do understand the reluctancein one way about allowing ocis
in, because then they're goingto say, well, how are we going
to be developing everyone athome?
Speaker 2 (43:40):
well, you can still develop those at home by
investing in the infrastructureit's not a methodology, though
sorry to interrupt you right, itwasn't that long ago where the
English national team wasnowhere near where I guess
everyone would want it to be,and I think it was the early
(44:00):
days where there was a quota.
Yes, you can have foreignplayers coming in because we
simply don't have that level ofskill.
So that's where you had, youknow, loads of I'll say loads.
I think you're only allowedfive, five per team, yeah, um,
and even then that was alsorestricted.
There was a massive backlashwithin england at least I can't
(44:22):
speak for anywhere else becauseyou're not giving the
opportunity to a homegrown ladand all of that kind of stuff,
which is all well and good.
Now, though, england's rankingsare so much better yeah,
because that skill, as opposedto just boot it and hoof it and
chase it.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
The game's improved.
The game's improved andobviously because of the fact
that they allowed foreigners infreely and obviously the Premier
League and the wholerenaissance around sort of tv
rights etc, etc.
But that has improved the game.
It's so much more exciting andit's the best league in the
world.
The premier league is the bestleague in the world.
People all aspire to play in thepremier league and that is
(45:00):
because they have allowed othersfrom outside to come in and
it's developed the englishplayers and it's developed the
english players.
English players are now goingabroad more freely than they
were previously and that nowjust sort of coming full circle.
I agree with you If you allowthose OCI's to come and play in
the Indian national team, that Ibelieve will help elevate not
(45:23):
only the players who are sort ofmainstays in the team, but it
will also help to attract moreattention to the national team
as well as sorry, as well as Imean, I've seen don't want to
call them ex-players, butplayers who have performed at
the highest levels in england,in scotland, in wales, and
(45:43):
they've gone and they've joinedclubs in india.
Speaker 2 (45:46):
Yeah, all right, so that has also.
So there had to have been aninvestment there.
There had to have been theintent there.
That's brilliant, that'sfantastic, but this is not
something that you can labourover and hope for the best.
This is something I believethat you need a sustained
(46:07):
investment.
Speaker 1 (46:08):
And that is why the likes of La Liga have had an
office in india for a number ofyears.
The premier league have beenworking with the indian super
league for a number of yearsbecause the thirst for european
football from india is huge.
Emily viewership is massive.
Yeah, people from india, fromdifferent parts of india, will
(46:30):
stay up very late at night justto is huge.
Premier League viewership ismassive.
People from India, fromdifferent parts of India, will
stay up very late at night justto watch a Premier League match.
I know people in India.
I obviously interact a lot withpeople from India and obviously
in the football space, butthose who are outside of the
football space.
When I'm sort of speakingbusiness about X, Y and Z and I
say, do you watch football?
Yes, we do.
We watch Liverpool orManchester United or whoever it
(46:53):
is, and I say, all right, whatIndian team do you support?
And they're like well, I didn'tknow any Indian teams who play.
Great point, great point.
So the thing around sort of theappetite for football as a
whole in India is there massive.
There's investment has beenCity Football Group, obviously,
here in Manchester City, newYork City FC have a large stake
(47:13):
in an Indian Super League club,mumbai City FC.
So there's obviously a reasonfor it, right, and the reason is
money, because Indians have gotmoney to spend.
There's investment, there willbe investment.
There are Indian entities whoare investing in sports clubs
outside of India.
Cricket clubs the 100 clubs,for example, are now primarily
(47:35):
sort of major stakeholders inthem are owned by Indians.
Speaker 2 (47:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
So there's a thirst for sport, but what we need to
do is obviously harness that and, especially in my space, is
look at how we can developIndian football.
My space is look at how we candevelop Indian football.
It's all well and good for themto be, you know, fans of
Premier League, la Liga, serie A, for example, bundesliga, which
is great, but how do we developthat internally and how do we
(47:59):
help develop those Indianplayers play and increase their
levels?
That's what we need to look atand that's what, especially
around in my mind, the OCI thinghelp be a catalyst for and I
think it can be a catalyst, Ithink it can help increase
India's FIFA ranking drasticallyhow do we maintain continuity?
(48:20):
people are now feeling moreempowered, like, for example,
yourself, joel.
There's a reason why you'redoing this podcast because you,
you feel empowered.
Yes, you feel that somethingneeds to happen.
Yes, you want to be able tointerview those people who you
want to interview, whereaspreviously we were unable to do
this.
We were either ringing up theBBC to say can I get an
(48:41):
interview, can I appear on?
Or you were trying to sort ofgo to these mainstream
newspapers to say I need aninterview and I want to talk
about South Asians.
Go to these mainstreamnewspapers to say I need an
interview and I want to talkabout South Asians.
People are doing this themselves.
People are going onto YouTube.
There are so many successfulYouTubers out there now, so many
successful podcasters out there, who are not waiting to be
allowed in.
(49:01):
They are opening the doorthemselves, and that is the
difference in our generation orwhere we are now.
And obviously my sole focushere is around football, stroke
sport.
I want to see more obviouslywithin, within the uk.
I want to see there being morerepresentation, but obviously,
because of my connection withindia, my magnetism to india,
(49:22):
because of my heritage, I wantto see india, indian sport, also
fly.
So I think it think it's reallyin our hands, and I'm quite
optimistic about this, to behonest.
Speaker 2 (49:33):
The time feels.
Right now, all of thesefoundational things are in place
.
We can control, and control isincredibly important because we
can take control of awarenessgeneration.
We can take control of how dowe move audiences from being
aware into engaged, how do weget them from being aware into
engaged, how do we get them frombeing engaged into
operationalized and supported?
(49:53):
So that's a traditional cx lens, if you like, um, and that's
awesome.
Timing is critical and you'vesaid it really really eloquently
, not just with punjabis, butlike india broadly.
Now, timing is now.
We.
We can be seen, but we're notafraid to be seen, which is so
important.
Speaker 1 (50:14):
We're not afraid to be seen.
And I'm so sort of encouragedfor people like my kids and the
youth now.
There is so much less fear andthey are sort of fearless that
they can do anything, they canachieve anything, whether it be
in the world of sport, whetherit be in the world of sort of
politics, finance, etc.
Etc.
Whatever they want to do.
(50:35):
There is so much more of thatconfidence that they can do
things.
And I say to my kids, I say toother people's, other people who
are even my age as well do notlet anyone say that you cannot
do anything.
Um, you dream, you aspire andyou work towards doing something
and you will be able to achieveit.
And I'll go back to that wholething about the last five, six
(50:57):
years.
And even now I'm seeing so muchprominence around South Asians
around the world in differentspheres, and I'm sort of so
proud of that, of where we are.
But at the same time I'm sortof thinking how can?
Of where we are?
But at the same time I'm sortof thinking how can we channel
this into areas which needattention?
And one of those is sport, andthat's the reason why I'm doing
what I do.
That's the reason for the AsianFootball Awards.
(51:19):
Perhaps we started the AsianFootball Awards before our time,
but I'm glad we did andobviously now sort of we had our
last awards in 2024, afterquite a long hiatus actually.
Speaker 2 (51:30):
How long has it been going on?
Speaker 1 (51:32):
Just so that everyone knows so we started the Asian
Football Awards in 2012.
We did the first one at WembleyStadium.
We did it again in 2013.
Then we skipped a year becausewe also introduced the Asian
Cricket Awards, because we wereworking with the ECB.
So 2012, 2013, 2015, then 2017.
And then we had a very long gapso between 2017 and 2024, so
(51:56):
about a seven year gap broughtthe Asian Football Awards back
last year and I brought themback predominantly because I
thought so much has happened inthis South Asian scene, plus the
fact that I was wondering whynobody else had done anything in
that gap.
I thought no one's speakingabout this.
Okay, there's certain thingsthat are happening, but nothing
on the big stage.
And when we brought that backthe appetite from the sponsors,
(52:18):
from the footballing bodieseveryone wanted to be involved,
whereas before it was likeknocking your head against a
brick wall trying to get theseorganizations involved.
They're not saying, well, whydo you need to do this, trying
to get these organizationsinvolved?
They're not saying, well, whydo you need to do this?
Now they understand why we needto do this and the footballing
organizations themselves havegot sort of um programs in place
where they are, where theyunderstand that there is an
(52:39):
issue around representation fromthe communities and they are
actively working towards tryingto increase the representation.
But we are here to say we havebeen in football for a while.
We are in football.
Let's celebrate the industry,because there are people who are
working behind the scenes.
There are owners who are SouthAsian.
There are people who areworking in media, which we see
(53:00):
every day on our screens.
Now, you know, you switch on toChampions League coverage.
You might see RashminChowdhury's.
You know has has hosted theballon d'or, for god's sake.
Yeah, from a south asianbackground, bangladeshi back
seem a jazz.
Well, who's been sort of theirmanaged bassin?
Who's been on our screens for awhile?
We've got radio, so there isthat representation, but
(53:23):
ultimately, yes, we are lookingfor numbers on the pitch and the
numbers on the pitchunfortunately are not
proportionate to who we aretoday in this society, and that
is what many of us and it's oneof my missions to help increase
the numbers of South Asians inthe game that is for me, it's
the next step.
Speaker 2 (53:43):
There's an awful lot going on.
There's an awful lot that hasgone on, but if we don't invest
in ourselves, one thing thatI've learned in my career four
careers that I've had now is youcan't wait for people.
You cannot wait.
Find something, and you've saidit again so much more
eloquently than I ever will.
(54:03):
Find what your passion is, andwe hear this from everybody.
Go, find something that youlove doing and get on with it.
Speaker 1 (54:10):
It's like these guys.
You know, I'm sure you've seenthese inspirational,
motivational talkers,celebrities on Instagram.
One thing which is veryconsistent with them all is they
say just start.
Yes, okay, we can all sort ofaspire to look perfect, to start
a podcast, for example, in afantastic environment, with the
(54:34):
lighting correct, et cetera, etcetera, but ultimately you just
need to start, because you cankeep putting things off and say
I'll do something, I'll dosomething.
You just need to start youyourself.
Like you sort of said, in termsof myself being an inspiration
to you, you are an inspirationto me in terms of what you're
doing, what you've done in yourspace and in terms of this
(54:54):
podcast.
I'm really looking forward tosort of hearing who else you've
spoken to.
It'd be great if there's anyonethat you would like to speak to
who you think I may know.
I'm fully prepared to sort ofdo introductions, and even in
terms of, in the uk, in india,you know, I'm quite happy to
sort of do introductions, andeven in terms of in the UK, in
India, you know, I'm quite happyto sort of you know, pick up
the phone and say listen, speakto this guy, joel.
I know he sports West Ham, butlisten.
(55:16):
You need to speak with him.
Keep doing what you're doing,man, and you know I say this to
many people as well.
You know it may be tough.
You know I've certainly seenit's tough.
You know it is tough, it can betough, but this is the only way
that we're going to thrive,right?
This is the only way, is there?
Speaker 2 (55:31):
anything you want to plug, stuff that you're doing
right now.
Final messages.
Speaker 1 (55:35):
Yeah, just in terms of, like I said, especially
within the South Asian space,not just in sport, but our time
is now it's happening.
I wouldn't say, as such, ridethe wave but just get involved.
Wave but just get involved.
Whatever sort of industry youare in, whether you're in sport,
finance, you know, music,entertainment, whatever it is in
any particular niche, you know,start, do something, start
(55:57):
getting involved, start speakingabout it.
In terms of what I'm involved inis obviously the south asian
space, both here in the uk andobviously in india.
India wise is the agency withinthe uk is around sort of South
Asian advocacy around footballunder-representation.
We're doing the Asian FootballAwards again in 2026.
So obviously a plug for that Ifthere are any potential
(56:20):
sponsors.
You know of anyone who'slistening.
Where can anyone find youonline?
Instagram, so quite big onInstagram at Abiljeet Rehal on
Facebook, linkedin.
Just search up my name.
I'm on that, quite, as you know, very vocal on there, so for
people to sort of contact mearound that.
But yeah, it's just South Asian, south Asian representation,
south Asian in sport.
(56:40):
That's what I'm all about andthat's my focus, fantastic.
Speaker 2 (56:45):
Keep on going.
Thanks so much.
This has been awesome, given mean awful lot to think about,
and, I'm sure, folks who aregonna listen to this as well, um
, reach out to me, reach out tobuljit.
Anything that we have shared,spoken about, kind of, pokes
your interest and you kind ofthink you know what I really,
really need to get involved inthat, because that's one of the
(57:07):
primary reasons why I'membarking on this exercise.
So, yeah, we're south asians,we're punjabis, we do this in
our sleep and now we are, we'regoing to do some damage, and
that's what this is about.
Thank you, take care.
Speaker 1 (57:23):
You take care of yourself and hopefully we'll
speak soon, man we will yes, manbye.
Right, so how are you ?
Speaker 1 (00:23):
I'm doing good, joel, and good to see you.
Yes, after God knows how manyyears, really good to speak to
you, sort of the other week.
Yeah, obviously we've beenkeeping in touch over sort of
LinkedIn posts, updates etc.
But really good to speak to youand see you.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
How did we actually meet first of all?
I mean, yes, it was withBritish Airways.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I think we were both working at British Airways and
probably it was on the street atBritish Airways at Waterside,
probably me going for acappuccino, one of the many
breaks a day that I had Probablya mutual friend, and we just
got chatting about what we'redoing and I remember you sort of
speaking about the fact thatyou do music and obviously I'm
(01:08):
interested in music.
I think at that stage is, youknow, we had probably kicked off
the asian football awards atthat stage, so that's when my
journey sort of in asianfootball began.
So that's how I think we met,seeing what you have done.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I genuinely feel proud.
I'm kind of like, yeah, he'sone of us thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
I mean it sort of uh means a lot.
You know, I I do get peoplesometimes messaging me or if I
see them at events, I was likeyou know what we wouldn't have
ever thought of?
Seeing sadat that's the firstthing they say.
So that being a football agentand just sort of going back to
that time sort of, when we metat waterside and when you were
at ba.
So I stayed on at BA for anumber of years after you sort
(01:47):
of left.
But football was always sort ofa bit of a side hustle, started
off as a side hustle.
We did the Asian FootballAwards and it was really the
Asian Football Awards and thatnetwork, access to the network,
access to the footballing bodies, access to the network, access
to the footballing bodies,accessing to football players
(02:08):
which really sort of helped inmy sort of I wouldn't say it was
an aspiration to become afootball agent, it just happened
.
It actually just happened, andI thought I did the exam back in
2011, passed the exam at thattime, and then it was only until
the launch of the Indian SuperLeague, which was actually in
2014, did I then start to startto do the agency.
That's when that happened.
So prior to that, it was justsort of a certification I had in
(02:31):
the background, probablythinking what the hell do I do
with it?
I don't know anyone who lookslike me who's doing this.
And it was, just like I said,on the back of the Asian
Football Awards 2012, and thatwhole event, I believe, was my
sort of um um, second comingrenaissance, if you will,
because up until that point itwas just like I'm going through
(02:53):
life, just like every typicalSouth Asian Punjabi, that they
go through life, they get adegree, they get a master's my
case of master's you know, youget a job, you get married, then
you get a job, you get married,then you get a job which you
feel is going to be a job forlife, and that was really how I
thought my life was going to be.
And then the Asian FootballAwards launching that, that
(03:13):
really opened my eyes and itreally sort of said to me listen
, you can do whatever you wantto do.
And I actually believe I'm sortof a bit of a late bloomer, a
late developer.
During school, like I was, Iwas sort of like very popular
because of sport, because offootball, but I just sort of
cruised through everything.
Everything was just like acruise, never worked hard in
(03:35):
terms of my exams, et cetera,but I sort of cruised through
things and I really think, aftermy master's and sort of going
into the world of work, Istarted to bloom.
I started to do things that Iwouldn't have thought I would
have been doing.
And it's just about the beliefand it's just about thinking to
myself well, I can do thesethings.
I see other people doing thesethings.
(03:55):
Why can't I do these things?
And sometimes, and perhaps forother people, perhaps their
background, perhaps theirheritage, perhaps the way they
look, their identity, perhapsthat has held them back.
And I kept thinking to myselfwell, I'm actually going to use
this to my advantage.
I'm not going to let this holdmy back.
Hold me back, use it to myadvantage, because people will
(04:16):
then know who I am.
Who is the belgian regal?
Yes, we know who he is.
He's the guy that was on skysports news.
He was the seek.
He is the.
He's the Sikh guy that was onSky Sports News.
He is the Sikh football agent.
And then even with India as well.
So obviously, india blossomedin terms of my relationship with
India, and it was always fromthe Indian perspective of we
know who Baljit is.
(04:37):
How do we know who Baljit is?
Because of the way he looks,he's on social media, he's
appeared on mainstream TV.
We know who he is.
Then that played to my advantagebecause people within europe
european football agents,european sort of clubs they
would know who I was because ofthe fact that I've been on tv
and because I'm so sort of loudon social media anyway with
(04:59):
regard to my advocacy.
So they knew who I was and I'measily identified.
So, from that perspective, likehow I said about being a late
bloomer, it was about mestarting to become, even though
I've always been proud of who Iam and the way I look but it's
about now sort of blossoming, ifit were.
Others encourage others, southasians, especially within the
football space that listen, youneed to be proud of who you are,
(05:26):
don't let anyone say to youthat you can't do what you want
to do.
And that's how I sort of feltover the last sort of 10, 15
years in terms of me as mypersonal development no, um,
there's a lot of similaritythere.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
I think anyone who's listening to this um
particularly if they are, youknow, from an asian background
you said you just kind ofdropped into agent world- how
did that really happen?
Speaker 1 (05:58):
though actually there was actually a moment, I think
it was at a networking eventprior to the Asian Football
Awards.
I think it was, or it mighthave actually been, at the Asian
Football Awards, the first oneand I was speaking to an agent,
an established agent, I won'tsay who they are Having a bit of
a conversation.
As you do networking, hi, whatdo you do?
(06:19):
Humble G, I do it.
So I said, what do you do?
I'm so-and-so, I'm a footballagent.
And I said to them oh, that'squite interesting.
You know, I think I might havea look at that.
And their response was uh,actually, general war, um, it's
a bit hard to pass, uh, in termsof the exam, so I don't think
really you'd be able to do it.
So I said, well, that's a bitof a strange thing to say a
(06:42):
networking thing, becauseusually when you meet people you
just say, yeah, you should gofor it.
You know, go to this website,have a look.
So I thought that was a bitstrange.
Anyway, just that sort oflingered in my head for a while.
And then I remember either thatnight or the next day I went
back and looked on the FAAwebsite and it said, about how
you apply to become an agent.
So I did all the checks, I didthe insurance, because at that
(07:05):
time you had to do insurance andthen I applied to sit to do the
exam.
Okay, I remember before I didthe exam I was sort of reading
online and they said the passrate was 14, one, one, four,
yeah, at that at that time.
And then I sort of went back towhat that guy said.
Maybe the way he articulatedhimself was incorrect, but he
(07:28):
was probably referring to thefact that it's very hard to pass
, but still, it's not somethingthat I think you should say to
anyone 14%.
I then sort of got all thematerial at the time off the FA
website.
I remember speaking to a FAsorry, a football lawyer at the
time off the FA website.
I remember speaking to afootball lawyer at the time who
was giving me some advice and Iremember I was studying for that
(07:49):
exam and I can't rememberstudying that hard since my
master's.
It was just it was talkingabout compensation.
So say, for example, if therewas a player who moves to a club
at a certain time, how muchcompensation would the other
club be due?
X, y, z, and then reading sortof laws and statutes etc.
(08:11):
Anyway, I did the exam and Ipassed.
And I did that because I justwanted to prove that person
wrong, even though I didn'tinteract with that person ever
again, wanted to sort of showthat you shouldn't let anyone
tell you that you can't dosomething, don't let others
limit your dreams and beliefs,and that was one of the like how
I said this sort of latebloomer in me, that was one of
(08:33):
those sort of milestone moments,me sort of passing that exam
and I.
I was doing this all stillwhilst work for ba.
I was doing this in thebackground.
This was sort of like study inthe evening, study during lunch
times, if you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
This is what I was doing and I was always having
that, but I always held in myhead that you still need to hold
down a steady job.
I just had that in my headSteady job.
Let this be a bit of a sidehustle, and this was a side
hustle years before side hustlesbecame the thing you know like.
Now everyone's talking aboutside hustle, side hustle, and
(09:10):
many of our people anyway, manypeople from the south asian
background you know, indians,asians, etc.
Have been doing side hustlessince they came into this
country.
They've been doing it.
They've been doing um, and itwas just something I had on the
side.
It was really good and I wasattending all these events but,
like I said, I didn't doanything with my football agent
(09:31):
license until the start of theIndian Super League.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
So it was quite intense.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Oh yeah, it was intense.
It was intense and I'm thinkingto myself what have I got
myself into?
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Because I think there's definitely from my end.
You know, when we hear aboutfootball agents, right?
It's kind of like they won upfrom estate agents.
Yeah they haven't got a goodpress.
But to hear now that there'sactually quite a little bit of
grouch and legwork and duediligence that's required just
to enable someone to be an agent, I mean, that's news to me.
(10:06):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Yeah, anyway.
So, for example, these are theold times in terms of, like I
said, when I passed the exam in2011,.
Then I got my license.
But what used to happen was, inagencies, there would always be
one at that time failedlicensed agent.
And then there would be a wholelot of other people who perhaps
you would associate as being astate agent, like a bit sort of
(10:31):
you know, dodgy, et cetera, etcetera, yeah, and they would
work for that agent, but all ofthe paperwork would go through
that agent.
So hard work, scouting, etcetera, et cetera, all the sort
of whining and dining and sortof, et cetera, et cetera, but it
would always go back throughthe agent.
(10:51):
So that's why agents at thattime were actually considered to
be quite valuable.
But there was me sort of veryindependent, yeah, not even
thinking about, shall I go andapproach these big agencies?
I wasn't even thinking aboutthat.
I was just thinking, right,I've got my license, maybe I
won't do anything with it.
And every year up until,obviously, the Indian Super
League kicked off, I was justblindly renewing my fee,
(11:12):
renewing my insurance.
Yeah, just blindly, in thebackground, and that was
possible because of the job, theday job that I was doing and
there was always, you know,there was always aspirations to
think okay, you know, maybe Ican look at South Asian players
in the UK, maybe I can approachthem and say, listen, let me
represent you.
That was the initial thought,but then, like I said, it was
just in the background, it wasjust there and I would use it
(11:34):
sometimes when I went tonetworking events, when people
would ask you know, who are you,what do you do?
I didn't want to say yeah, myname is Baljit rehau and I work
for british airways.
You know, I wanted to say, um,my name's baljit rehau and I'm
an fa licensed football agent.
You know, it's got a nice ringto it, right, and it's sort of a
bit it was hard for it.
So that's the reason why, um,that was sort of happening and
(11:57):
that was in the background.
But going back to your question,I remember you sort of said
about how did your family takeit?
It, to be honest, it reallywasn't a thing because of the
fact that, um, you know, Iworked for BA and then when I
decided to leave BA, I just sortof said to them, because they
knew this is something I wasdoing in the background.
They knew sort of every year orevery other year the Asian
(12:21):
football boards is happening, sothat's something that I'm doing
, um, and then the agency staffstarted to sort of work in India
when I sort of decided to leaveBA.
It really wasn't a thing.
It's just like Abuljit's doinghis thing, right, doing
something you know and obviouslyin the background as well, as
you sort of progress throughyour career.
(12:41):
Obviously you build up what Idid.
I built up a property portfolio, so there's that I'm looking
after as well as doing thissports stuff.
Has it been tough?
Yes, you know it's not allroses, you know, after you leave
sort of a steady job.
I've always found the work I doin terms of the proper job, as
people say very easy but at thesame time very boring and very
(13:04):
mind-numbing.
And it was at a point wheresometimes I used to sit in
meetings and I'm sure this hashappened to you as well, joel as
well.
But I used to sit in meetingsand I used to be sitting there
thinking, well, gee, what areyou doing here?
What are you doing here?
Yeah, you're going to sort ofgrow up, as you know, so to
speak, and no one's going toknow who you are, you're just
(13:26):
going to be a number.
And I thought there's so muchmore to life than this.
There's so much more to lifethan this, and I would say
probably.
I sat on about 40 or 50meetings having that same
thought.
Having that same thought whatthe hell are you doing here?
You should be somewhere else.
You need to be making adifference.
You need to be sitting in aboardroom somewhere, a football
(13:48):
club, talking about X, y and Z.
I just kept thinking.
I kept thinking and thenobviously COVID hit and when
that hit, there was a lot ofchange and there was an
opportunity at work to takevoluntary redundancy.
I wasn't happy there anyway,because of the fact that I
thought this isn't what I wantedto do.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Oh, yeah, what was that?
Speaker 1 (14:08):
This was in 2020, I think, Okay, okay, 2020 this was
.
And then I thought to myself doyou know what this could be the
time?
You know, it was very uncertain.
It was very uncertain times,obviously, because people were
saying you know, the job marketwas so uncertain and and I just
thought now's the time because Ijust didn't want to look back
(14:31):
and think to myself that Ididn't make that leap.
Yeah, and it's been hard.
There's no sort of two waysabout it.
It's been tough and especiallyin the agency world and
especially doing events etc.
There are peaks and there aretroughs, and when there are
peaks, those peaks are so highand when there are troughs they
are so, so low and it can reallysort of test you as an
(14:54):
individual.
However, I don't have thatfeeling like I had when I was in
the corporate world.
I don't want to go to work on aMonday.
I don't.
What was your support frameworklike?
I think support frameworkobviously at home, you know
supportive parents, supportivewife, you know the kids
obviously are growing up andthey're obviously excited
because dad works in football.
(15:15):
But that was the support really.
So family for me is number one.
Family support was being, youknow, great.
You know I've got a good sort ofsocial circle in terms of
friends, but yeah, it's just andI think internal support from
myself, sort of mentally to say,listen, you can do this, you
don't want to sort of feel downabout going to work and even
(15:36):
though the work I was neverinterested in the work I did,
I'll be very, very interested,very honest with you, but I
always loved that social aspectof work.
Yeah, very fun times, you know,build up a very strong network
of friends, sometimes likeriding friends, you know, in
(15:57):
terms of sport, doing someventures and obviously the added
advantage of being able totravel.
So that's the reason for meabout why I was still going to
work, but there was never anyinterest in the work I actually
did.
Um, it was more around sort ofa stable environment, you know,
good social sort of networkthere and obviously you build up
(16:19):
the people skills and the factthat it allowed me to do so much
more outside of work.
That was, that was the realthing for me.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
So I guess, in terms of support framework, yeah, the
day job as it was provided, ifyou like, at least one aspect of
those foundational things whichenabled you to get on with
things that made you smile.
Yeah, um, did you have a notioneven way back then?
I'm doing this for thecommunity as well as I'm doing
this for belgique, but how manyfolks, and kids in particular,
(16:50):
are going to see a visible sikhman doing this thing where you
know you don't even see anyplayers?
I find it incredibly odd thatwe are so underrepresented.
If anyone wants to turn aroundand say to me there isn't a
south asian person good enoughto play professional football,
(17:10):
let alone play in the premierleague, yeah, I don't buy that.
I do not buy that one bit.
I could be wrong.
I could be wrong because I'mnot in that space.
You are, yeah, what's your takeon?
Speaker 1 (17:22):
So, just sort of rolling back a little bit, you
sort of said why did I do it?
Was it for Abuljeet?
Was it for the community?
It started off being I justwanted to do something different
.
And it started off being forthe community because of the
fact that I, you know, lovefootball so much.
You know played since I was infirst school, you know, always
in teams, and football was mylove, and I remember going back
(17:46):
right to sort of first schooland middle school.
The only thing we used to thinkabout and the reason why we
used to wake up in the morningto go to school was because we
knew we were going to playfootball break times, at lunch
times, etc.
So it started off being for thecommunity because of the
underrepresentation.
Now, even before I got into thissort of South Asian space,
(18:07):
there were people talking aboutwhy there aren't any Asians, as
they used to say then aren'tthere any Asians in football?
Yeah, so this conversation washappening way before I got into
it.
But then when I started to getinto it and again, like I said,
pre the Asian Football Awards,we were sort of working with
some of these clubs the Chelsea,I think in 2009, started off a
(18:29):
trials called the Chelsea AsianStar and they specifically had
sort of open days and trials forthose from an Asian background,
for them to come, to come toStamford Bridge or to the Cobham
training ground and for them tobe in and amongst people who
look like them for them to feelcomfortable.
That's how I got involved,because there was a club which
(18:50):
was associated with BA atConcord, it was called the
Rangers at BA Clubs and it wasthrough a friend who was taking
some of the boys over to AsianStar and that's where it all
started.
So it was the conversation I hadwith peter kenyon, the then ceo
of the chelsea, which reallysparked in my mind, I think,
minister of asian football.
So that's how that started.
(19:13):
So again, it was for thecommunity and in a sense it's
still and it always will be forthe community.
But then it started to becomeabout how can I develop as an
individual, how can I develop,obviously, in the football
agency space, in the event space, and then it became in into the
india space as well, into inthe indian sports market.
But then going back and yousort of saying about people who
(19:35):
look like us, people from southasian backgrounds in football.
There have been south asians inprofessional football you can
count them on one hand though,yeah, yeah, you can, there have
been, there are and therecertainly will be.
But, as you've quite rightlymentioned, they are few and very
far between.
Numbers have increased, butvery slowly, too slowly, if you
(19:57):
ask me.
And again, when you look at theSouth Asian diaspora within the
UK, when you look at statisticsand I think, if memory serves
me correctly, I think 9% of theUK, in terms of from the last
census, are from a South Asianbackground Now, if you look at
fortunately they are notreflected in the English game um
(20:22):
, you obviously get thingsaround south asians well, they
prefer the cricket, which isabsolute rubbish.
Of course, south asians lovecricket, but in terms of
british-born south asians, theirfirst love is football.
It's a fact, it's an absolutefact.
So why those numbers have notbeen reflected is, in my mind,
(20:42):
um, a massive, sort of massiveissue.
But, like I said, there havebeen South Asians who have been
playing football.
There have been South Asianswho have been playing football
since the 1930s.
There was an Indian who playedfor Celtic in the 1930s and then
, sort of fast forward to theend of the 60s, sort of early
(21:07):
60s there was a player calledRajinder Singh Verdi.
He changed his name to RogerVerdi.
He was signed by Bobby Robsonat Ipswich.
And again you speak to him andhe said well, I didn't get as
far as I wanted to because ofthe fact that I was brown.
I had to go to the USA and heplayed in the NASL the likes of
(21:27):
LA Beckenbauer Best.
And he played there because hethought to himself that no one's
going to ask what I look likeand he did well out there, but
he couldn't do well here.
And then, sort of fast forward,there was a player I think
played for Preston, also playedfor Leighton Orient, ricky
Heppelit.
He was brilliant.
(21:48):
And then after that there areplayers Zesh Rahman played for
Fulham in the Premier League,michael Chopra played for
Newcastle and Sunderland in thePremier League, then you've got
Danny Bart, and then it goes onand on and on.
Jan Dander, and now there's awhole host of sort of youngsters
now who are sort of there,there or thereabouts now I can
remember, um, some quiteprominent names, players, yeah
(22:13):
and saying Indians can't playbecause, yeah, they eat curry.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Yeah, it's the wrong food, and literally, for anyone
who's listening to this, thatwas what was being said, and
quite openly you can't playfootball because you eat curry.
Yeah, and you're not fit enoughand you haven't got the skills
for it, etc.
Etc.
Etc.
And so it went on.
Yeah, things are changing, butyou know it's not happening
(22:38):
quick enough.
I'm impatient, I'm naturallyimpatient and I'm not having to
dig at you, right?
As I've said already right fromthe outset, I admire you
incredibly in what you have done, because that's for me, that is
where the bar is.
Yeah, for someone to do whatyou have done.
They've got some faces, I guessin my world now, in the design
community, just own theirparticular space, which is
(23:02):
fantastic, and that's happening.
I think it goes back to almostthe catalyst, where you were
told yeah, it's a really, reallytough thing and maybe you
shouldn't be going when I'mtalking about becoming an agent.
I think there's something very,very particular about first
generation, second generationimmigrant stock and also Punjabi
(23:25):
.
If somebody tells you no, very,very true.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Yeah, you're just gonna be like uh-huh, watch me
yeah, yeah, very true, watch meI mean going back to those
stereotypes, and thosestereotypes were very prevalent,
yeah, in terms of peopleoutwardly saying about the fact
that either you're not bigenough or you're eating the
wrong foods, or your parents aregoing to say, to a certain age,
(23:51):
you have to stop playingfootball now, because now you
need to go and do your exams.
Yes, all of that stuff wasthere, but again, it's about
those inbuilt stereotypes.
So, like I would say, forexample, the scouts yeah, the
scouts are the conduit betweenyou as a child player and
potentially becoming pro.
(24:12):
Okay, they are the king maker,as it were, and they had.
They have inbuilt stereotypesabout south asians.
Now, were there people toeducate them?
To say, south asians come inall shapes and sizes.
If you look at those from theIndian subcontinent, for example
, those who are from the north,they are rather tall, big boned
(24:36):
and actually fit in with whatyou perhaps are looking for.
Ok, but then the whole mythsaround this bust.
When you look at Spain winningthe World Cup, when you look at
Argentina winning the World Cup,you look at their physique and
you look at how they play.
So, from that perspective, yes,there are South Asians who have
faced that in the past, butcertainly since I've been in
(24:59):
this space and there was talkabout people saying that parents
are holding the kids back.
I'm very, very sure that hadhappened, because there are
people who are sort of mucholder than me who would say that
I was really good at footballbut my dad said I can't, I can't
go and pursue this becauseeither I've got to go to
university or I've got to nowwork in the shop.
(25:19):
Yeah, and of course there wasan element of that.
Of course there was, butcertainly since the time I've
been involved, south asianparents have are so supportive
of the kids who show the talentand they are driving their kids
to these games.
They are spending the time.
They're spending the time andthe money supporting their kids.
There are, there are.
(25:39):
There are so much more of thisand I encourage parents, for
example, whose kids have made itpro.
I have said to them let's speakabout your journey, let others
hear about what it is, what ittakes, what you've been through.
So things are changing.
I mean things have beenchanging for a while, and
especially from the South Asianside, in terms of what we are
(26:02):
able to control, I think we arein such a great position that
there are no more excuses.
There needs to be a steadyfactory of those from a South
Asian background who are goingthrough the academies and who
are becoming pro.
But we need to be realisticabout things, because a kid,
irrespective of their background, can go into an academy, but
(26:23):
the percentage of those who turnpro again is very, very low.
So again, I mean I've said thisnumerous times it's a numbers
game, but the more we can getinto the academies, potentially,
the more we can have ending upbeing pro.
Yeah, you're gonna be in it towin it.
Yeah, the whole and the wholeissue that people say to you
where, where do you think theissue is?
(26:44):
And I said I actually believethe issue is that transition
from grassroots into the academy.
That is where I think we reallyneed to concentrate is that
aspect of things, because oncewe can start, once we can nail
that, we can then start totheoretically, I feel, have more
south asians on our screens.
Because ultimately, when peoplesay about Asians in football,
(27:07):
people are saying, well, I can'tsee anyone who looks like me.
Why aren't there any Asians infootball?
We see Asians playing in theEngland cricket team.
We see Asians excelling in allfields, in business, in media,
for example, we see South Asiannewscasters, we see South Asian
sports presenters yeah, we seeit there, but why aren't we
(27:29):
seeing it on the pitch?
And I understand why.
I understand the feeling.
And again, we would obviouslylike to see a bit of a star
right.
We'd like to see someone who'ssort of prominent, who gets the
news headlines, who gets sort offeatured in media about the guy
who scored three, four goals orthe guy who saved X, y and Z.
(27:51):
Of course we don't see that,but we need to see that churn
and we need to see a steadychurn, Even if it is of the run
of the mill, premier Leagueplayers you know those who are
in the background, but we knowthat they're from a South Asian
background.
Seeing Singh on a shirt seeingknow that they're from a South
Asian background.
Seeing on a shirt, seeing youknow Patel, khan or Mohammed,
for example, will go such a long.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Well, I mean quite topical.
There was a certain young ladywho actually captained England
quite recently.
Was it the under, was it 19s or16s?
Under 16s, I mean, I haven'tgot her name in front of me, my
bad, but that just put a massivesmile on my face.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
And you know me sort of hearing about that.
I obviously knew about hername's Sarit, binning, and Sarit
I sort of knew about becauseshe plays for Wolves.
And there are a number of sortof Asian females, south Asian
females who play for clubs whoare known about, obviously
through the awards.
But when I saw that that shecut in the under six, I just
(28:53):
thought to myself you know whatthis is so brilliant?
Obviously South Asian,obviously Punjabi, obviously
Sikh and a female as well,because obviously now the female
game in football is exploding.
You know, it's really sort ofrising and it's getting a lot of
attraction.
And seeing that, I thought thatwas brilliant and I put that up
on my social media and that blewup on my social media.
(29:17):
It was just unbelievable thatthe number of shares, the number
of likes, the comments, um, andI just thought to myself a good
for her but also, at the sametime, good for all those south
asian girls who are eitherplaying football or those who
aspire to play football.
Because you know I don't liketo use this that often, but you
(29:37):
know they say if you can't seeit, you can't be it.
In one way that's true, becausepeople will see that and
perhaps they will be encouragedto then go and play for that
grassroots team because theyknow Sarit has gone on to the
captain England at under 16s NowI sincerely hope Sarit goes on
and she ends up playing for theLionesses.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
I would sincerely hope that as well, but things
like this make such a hugedifference.
Things like this make such ahuge difference, and those who
aren't associated with the gameas such, like how you said that
you saw that and that put asmile on your face.
The comments I got fromLinkedIn, from various social
media, about how great this is,and I also got some from parents
(30:20):
of kids, females who play,saying, actually, this is just
the boost my daughter needed.
This was just the boost it wasamazing.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
It was amazing, it was amazing.
It's one of the reasons why Imean, who needs another buddy
podcast?
Right, but I've got to thatpoint now where I don't see the
faces that I want to see.
Yeah, and you know, this isn'tabout me, this is about you and
football and seeing that awesomeyoung lady doing what she has
done, achieving what she hasdone, you know, and it will
(30:48):
encourage other boys and girls.
I mean New Zealand.
Correct me if I'm wrong here aswell.
Yeah, we have a Singh playingat the World Cup for New Zealand
.
I don't think that's everhappened before.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
I could be wrong.
No, no, it hasn't.
And so Sarpreet Singh, born andbrought up in New Zealand,
punjabi, he came to prominence.
Actually, he played for NewZealand at the Under-17 World
Cup which was held in India, theone we're in now.
Right, yeah, right.
That is where I got to knowabout who Sarpreet Singh is.
(31:21):
So I thought, okay, great.
I think either two years afterthat he got signed by Bayern
Munich, and I remember when hegot signed by Bayern Munich, I'm
sort of thinking to myself whatthe hell has just happened.
You know, this is such awatershed moment and I thought
this is fantastic.
And I remember seeing thesocial media post of Bayern
Munich and this guy putting onthe Bayern Munich top and he put
(31:45):
it on and there was a view fromthe back and as it went down,
you could see on the back singand it was just like one of
those the goose bump moments andI thought, my God, you know,
we've made it, you know, and Ithought this is going to be that
star.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
I'm getting goosebumps.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
Yeah, this is going to be that star that everyone's
all been yearning for.
I mean, unfortunately, hedidn't do quite well at Bayern
Munich and obviously sort ofwent to the B team and now he's
playing in Portugal, butobviously still representing New
Zealand.
And when they sort of won theirgroup, the OFC, and it was New
Zealand and Arsenal going to theWorld Cup, and I saw because
(32:19):
I'm sort of friends with Sarpyon Instagram and I saw his
Instagram, you know, going tothe World Cup I couldn't see any
media outlets talking aboutthat.
I thought what have they missed?
Or have I missed something here?
You know, I was franticallysort of searching.
You know, sing at the World Cup, you know, blah, blah, blah.
There wasn't anything.
And I decided to put up a poston my social and I remember I
(32:42):
put something up that says forthe culture, for the community,
into be playing at the World Cup, and I put that on my Instagram
.
You know, sort of thinking, youknow it's going to be one that
gets about 100 likes and thatblew up and I tell you this much
, it just went crazy.
And there's me, from a selfishperspective, thinking, all right
, this is increasing my sort ofwears and all that sort of stuff
(33:03):
.
But that blew up and then whenI sort of had a look at the
analytics, the interactions onthat post was 1.1 million and
the appetite for success stoolis especially in sport for South
Asians across the world is huge, and especially in India,
people obviously being excitedthe fact that the guy's a
(33:23):
Punjabi, you know he's got athing in his name he's of Indian
origin, an OCI, straight PR,pio.
It was tremendous and everyonewas sort of saying that's great,
that's great and obviously,listen a touch wood.
Let's hope he stays injury freeand he plays at the 2026 World
Cup, because I'm telling youthis now, new Zealand are going
to have a whole set of new fansduring that World Cup.
(33:46):
That is what differencerepresentation makes.
It's things like this.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
It's going to add to not just the sense of community
but the sense of pride, not justwithin the Punjabi community
also, but the broader SouthAsian community.
And that is now because of thevehicle which is football, that
is global, but as a community, Idon't think we've done enough
right.
We're probably late to the game.
Well, I'm definitely late tothe game, which is why I'm
(34:18):
trying to double down and investmy time and effort and other
things into ventures like this.
But you touched on such abrilliant segway as well, this
whole aspect of uci, right now.
You know.
Now, you know where I'm goingto go.
The organization that'sresponsible, accountable for
(34:38):
football in india, yeah, andthey seem to be steadfast
entrenched in not wanting togive the opportunity to absolute
citizens of india who come invia the oci or another vehicle.
What's your take on that?
Speaker 1 (34:53):
so again, um around, so you may hear me talking about
pio.
So that's the person of indianorigin and oci is an overseas
citizen of india.
So I say citizen in quotes.
This isn't only about football,this is sports-wide, yeah, and
it's a government thing.
So, in terms of they don'tallow dual citizenship, many
(35:17):
other countries do and there areobviously countries I'll give
you an example of Qatar, forexample who have recently sort
of sped up the FIFA rankingsbecause they have allowed dual
citizens or people to take updual citizenship.
So India hasn't or doesn't allowanyone who does not hold an
Indian passport to representthem across any sport.
(35:41):
Our focus, my focus, isobviously football.
Given the interactions I havewith those of a South Asian
background, and especially, inthis case, of an Indian heritage
background, and the Asianfootball, because I've seen it
and I've seen the talent there,I'm sort of thinking why can't I
play for India?
Now, there have been numerouspeople speaking about this and
(36:02):
advocating for this, me beingone of them about why India
should allow people of Indianorigin to play for them, simply
because of the fact that India'sFIFA ranking is so abysmal At
this stage.
From what I recall, the lasttime I looked it was 127.
Now, joel, I can't even name127 countries.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
You put that into context.
The size of the population,population, the segmentation
globally, the volume of peoplewho actually play a door at a.
You know the game that makes nosense, absolutely so.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
So these have been the reasons why I've sort of
mentioned it and I've been quitevocal about it in terms of my
advocacy not only advocacywithin british south asians and
in terms of advocacy not onlyadvocacy within British South
Asians and in terms ofrepresentation, but also around
OCIs and them wanting to play orbeing eligible to play for
India.
Now the issue has been aroundit's a government policy or a
(36:59):
directive that you can'trepresent without having an
Indian passport.
Now this then goes back to lookat those who are either
residing or who were born andbrought in the USA, uk or
wherever got the talent thinkingto themselves listen, I think
I'd like to play for India, andthere've been a number of
players who've been very vocalabout the fact that they would
like to play for India.
(37:19):
Question there on is are theywilling to relinquish their
British passport, us passport,in order to take up an Indian
passport to represent?
This has got a myriad ofobstacles in one way, because if
you are playing for a PremierLeague team, a championship team
or a football team within theUK, if you then relinquish your
(37:40):
British passport and take up anIndian passport, visa ruling
wise, you are not able to playfor your team that you're
playing for, because the rulesare that in order to play in
England, number one, yournational team has to be above 50
, yeah FIFA ranking.
And two, you have had to haveplayed for your international
(38:01):
team a number of times, yeah.
So that would then restrict thelikes of, for example, jan
Dander, who plays for Hearts inthe Scottish Premier League,
danny Bart, who plays in thechampionship for Blackburn.
That would restrict them fromplaying for their own club,
simply because of the fact thatthey don't have correct
citizenship.
So that is why there is areluctance in one way from these
(38:25):
players, because if they thengive up one passport, they have
to take up another passport.
They won't be able to playwhere they excel at or at that
level.
The other thing is that thewhole passport process in India
you have to have lived in Indiafor 365 days before you can
actually start to apply for yourpassport.
What are you going to do inthat three, six, five days?
(38:47):
Where are you going to play?
And then the other thing, alsothere on in, is how long will it
take for that passport then tocome through?
So there could be a period oftwo, three, four years where
you're in limbo right Now.
I recently actually spoke tothe Indian High Commissioner in
London about this and I said youknow there's an issue here.
And he said well, you know,let's have a look at what we can
(39:07):
do and who we can speak to.
I'm not that hopeful, to behonest, but hopefully the
conversation can happen Now.
The other thing could be areIndia, as in general, the Indian
government, are they toostubborn to let in OCIs to
represent India?
Are they thinking to themselveslisten, we've got 1.4 billion
people.
We can't find 11 players from1.4.
(39:30):
It could perhaps be that andagain, this is across all sports
.
But, you see the other nationsQatar, you've even seen
Afghanistan.
Now you're seeing Bangladesh,pakistan, who are doing that,
allowing dual citizenships.
So I don't really see the issue.
And a number of head coacheswho've been in India who are
doing that, allowing dualcitizenships.
So I don't really see the issue.
And a number of head coacheswho have been in India, so the
(39:51):
Indian head coaches, they havebeen asking for this to happen.
They've been saying listen, youknow, we need to improve, we
need to improve our level.
India, to be honest, theystruggle even on the Asian front
.
In terms of the Asianchampionships, my belief is for,
obviously, within my lifetime,I would sincerely hope that
india can qualify for a worldcup, not just as hosts, but sort
(40:13):
of on merit.
How are they able to do that inthe short to medium term?
That is, by allowing people ofindian origin, oci cardholders,
to represent india.
Having an oci in itself, Ibelieve, is a commitment to say
listen, I have Indian heritageand I am an overseas citizen of
India, so why not allow that?
(40:35):
There are certain ways and meansand there are certain things
that the Indian government isable to do, but I believe at
this stage they're a bit toostubborn to allow this to happen
.
It can happen, it can happen.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
The thing that's quite interesting for me is
looking at this from the outside, but with my, if you like,
business design hat on.
Yeah, but I don't think I'd betoo far away from the realms of
truth if I were to suggest that,yeah, there's money in this.
You've got huge proportion ofIndian business owners who have
(41:10):
untold net value.
Are they investing?
I don't see it.
Maybe they are, but I don't seeit.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
Maybe they should be investing and they will.
And they will invest when thenational team starts to do well.
There is an appetite such ahuge appetite in India for
football, especially amongst theyouth, and, as you well know,
india has probably the world'smost rapidly growing middle
(41:40):
class.
People have got so muchdisposable income now in terms
of where do I spend my time, andthere are people who are
looking at alternatives to acricket.
They want more than just acricket and football is, I would
say, something that they areyearning for India to do well.
Now, if the Indian nationalteam starts to do well and you
(42:01):
sort of hit the nail on the headwhen you were speaking about
investment if India were to doso well that they could hit a
World Cup for, for example, theinvestment not only coming out
of India but going into Indiawould be tremendous and the
knock-on effect of that would bethat obviously there'd be more
sort of interest in the nationalteam and that then transpire
(42:24):
into interest into Indiandomestic football.
Yeah, because of the nationalteam he's doing so well, people
will start saying, oh, thatplayer, sahal, who plays for
India, where does he play for?
In India.
Then you will start to get anincrease in investment and
interest in the domestic game,which unfortunately isn't there.
The domestic game in India isrun by corporates.
(42:46):
The ISL Indian Super League isrun by the Imbanis.
So what we need in India is weneed more than that.
We need the government toinvest.
We need them to invest inobviously grassroots facilities.
There needs to be a lot moregoing on.
They need to develop the leaguesystem in India Because
ultimately, like I said, there's1.4 billion people.
(43:08):
There's so much scope to do somuch more in India.
India in itself is 10 differentcountries.
There are people from the northwho perhaps won't understand
those from the south becausethey speak a different language.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
There's 200 plus different languages in that
space.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
The common language in India is actually English.
That's the most common language.
People will be able tounderstand each other.
So there's so much moreinvestment that needs to happen
and understandably, I can.
I do understand the reluctancein one way about allowing ocis
in, because then they're goingto say, well, how are we going
to be developing everyone athome?
Speaker 2 (43:40):
well, you can still develop those at home by
investing in the infrastructureit's not a methodology, though
sorry to interrupt you right, itwasn't that long ago where the
English national team wasnowhere near where I guess
everyone would want it to be,and I think it was the early
(44:00):
days where there was a quota.
Yes, you can have foreignplayers coming in because we
simply don't have that level ofskill.
So that's where you had, youknow, loads of I'll say loads.
I think you're only allowedfive, five per team, yeah, um,
and even then that was alsorestricted.
There was a massive backlashwithin england at least I can't
(44:22):
speak for anywhere else becauseyou're not giving the
opportunity to a homegrown ladand all of that kind of stuff,
which is all well and good.
Now, though, england's rankingsare so much better yeah,
because that skill, as opposedto just boot it and hoof it and
chase it.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
The game's improved.
The game's improved andobviously because of the fact
that they allowed foreigners infreely and obviously the Premier
League and the wholerenaissance around sort of tv
rights etc, etc.
But that has improved the game.
It's so much more exciting andit's the best league in the
world.
The premier league is the bestleague in the world.
People all aspire to play in thepremier league and that is
(45:00):
because they have allowed othersfrom outside to come in and
it's developed the englishplayers and it's developed the
english players.
English players are now goingabroad more freely than they
were previously and that nowjust sort of coming full circle.
I agree with you If you allowthose OCI's to come and play in
the Indian national team, that Ibelieve will help elevate not
(45:23):
only the players who are sort ofmainstays in the team, but it
will also help to attract moreattention to the national team
as well as sorry, as well as Imean, I've seen don't want to
call them ex-players, butplayers who have performed at
the highest levels in england,in scotland, in wales, and
(45:43):
they've gone and they've joinedclubs in india.
Speaker 2 (45:46):
Yeah, all right, so that has also.
So there had to have been aninvestment there.
There had to have been theintent there.
That's brilliant, that'sfantastic, but this is not
something that you can labourover and hope for the best.
This is something I believethat you need a sustained
(46:07):
investment.
Speaker 1 (46:08):
And that is why the likes of La Liga have had an
office in india for a number ofyears.
The premier league have beenworking with the indian super
league for a number of yearsbecause the thirst for european
football from india is huge.
Emily viewership is massive.
Yeah, people from india, fromdifferent parts of india, will
(46:30):
stay up very late at night justto is huge.
Premier League viewership ismassive.
People from India, fromdifferent parts of India, will
stay up very late at night justto watch a Premier League match.
I know people in India.
I obviously interact a lot withpeople from India and obviously
in the football space, butthose who are outside of the
football space.
When I'm sort of speakingbusiness about X, Y and Z and I
say, do you watch football?
Yes, we do.
We watch Liverpool orManchester United or whoever it
(46:53):
is, and I say, all right, whatIndian team do you support?
And they're like well, I didn'tknow any Indian teams who play.
Great point, great point.
So the thing around sort of theappetite for football as a
whole in India is there massive.
There's investment has beenCity Football Group, obviously,
here in Manchester City, newYork City FC have a large stake
(47:13):
in an Indian Super League club,mumbai City FC.
So there's obviously a reasonfor it, right, and the reason is
money, because Indians have gotmoney to spend.
There's investment, there willbe investment.
There are Indian entities whoare investing in sports clubs
outside of India.
Cricket clubs the 100 clubs,for example, are now primarily
(47:35):
sort of major stakeholders inthem are owned by Indians.
Speaker 2 (47:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
So there's a thirst for sport, but what we need to
do is obviously harness that and, especially in my space, is
look at how we can developIndian football.
My space is look at how we candevelop Indian football.
It's all well and good for themto be, you know, fans of
Premier League, la Liga, serie A, for example, bundesliga, which
is great, but how do we developthat internally and how do we
(47:59):
help develop those Indianplayers play and increase their
levels?
That's what we need to look atand that's what, especially
around in my mind, the OCI thinghelp be a catalyst for and I
think it can be a catalyst, Ithink it can help increase
India's FIFA ranking drasticallyhow do we maintain continuity?
(48:20):
people are now feeling moreempowered, like, for example,
yourself, joel.
There's a reason why you'redoing this podcast because you,
you feel empowered.
Yes, you feel that somethingneeds to happen.
Yes, you want to be able tointerview those people who you
want to interview, whereaspreviously we were unable to do
this.
We were either ringing up theBBC to say can I get an
(48:41):
interview, can I appear on?
Or you were trying to sort ofgo to these mainstream
newspapers to say I need aninterview and I want to talk
about South Asians.
Go to these mainstreamnewspapers to say I need an
interview and I want to talkabout South Asians.
People are doing this themselves.
People are going onto YouTube.
There are so many successfulYouTubers out there now, so many
successful podcasters out there, who are not waiting to be
allowed in.
(49:01):
They are opening the doorthemselves, and that is the
difference in our generation orwhere we are now.
And obviously my sole focushere is around football, stroke
sport.
I want to see more obviouslywithin, within the uk.
I want to see there being morerepresentation, but obviously,
because of my connection withindia, my magnetism to india,
(49:22):
because of my heritage, I wantto see india, indian sport, also
fly.
So I think it think it's reallyin our hands, and I'm quite
optimistic about this, to behonest.
Speaker 2 (49:33):
The time feels.
Right now, all of thesefoundational things are in place
.
We can control, and control isincredibly important because we
can take control of awarenessgeneration.
We can take control of how dowe move audiences from being
aware into engaged, how do weget them from being aware into
engaged, how do we get them frombeing engaged into
operationalized and supported?
(49:53):
So that's a traditional cx lens, if you like, um, and that's
awesome.
Timing is critical and you'vesaid it really really eloquently
, not just with punjabis, butlike india broadly.
Now, timing is now.
We.
We can be seen, but we're notafraid to be seen, which is so
important.
Speaker 1 (50:14):
We're not afraid to be seen.
And I'm so sort of encouragedfor people like my kids and the
youth now.
There is so much less fear andthey are sort of fearless that
they can do anything, they canachieve anything, whether it be
in the world of sport, whetherit be in the world of sort of
politics, finance, etc.
Etc.
Whatever they want to do.
(50:35):
There is so much more of thatconfidence that they can do
things.
And I say to my kids, I say toother people's, other people who
are even my age as well do notlet anyone say that you cannot
do anything.
Um, you dream, you aspire andyou work towards doing something
and you will be able to achieveit.
And I'll go back to that wholething about the last five, six
(50:57):
years.
And even now I'm seeing so muchprominence around South Asians
around the world in differentspheres, and I'm sort of so
proud of that, of where we are.
But at the same time I'm sortof thinking how can?
Of where we are?
But at the same time I'm sortof thinking how can we channel
this into areas which needattention?
And one of those is sport, andthat's the reason why I'm doing
what I do.
That's the reason for the AsianFootball Awards.
(51:19):
Perhaps we started the AsianFootball Awards before our time,
but I'm glad we did andobviously now sort of we had our
last awards in 2024, afterquite a long hiatus actually.
Speaker 2 (51:30):
How long has it been going on?
Speaker 1 (51:32):
Just so that everyone knows so we started the Asian
Football Awards in 2012.
We did the first one at WembleyStadium.
We did it again in 2013.
Then we skipped a year becausewe also introduced the Asian
Cricket Awards, because we wereworking with the ECB.
So 2012, 2013, 2015, then 2017.
And then we had a very long gapso between 2017 and 2024, so
(51:56):
about a seven year gap broughtthe Asian Football Awards back
last year and I brought themback predominantly because I
thought so much has happened inthis South Asian scene, plus the
fact that I was wondering whynobody else had done anything in
that gap.
I thought no one's speakingabout this.
Okay, there's certain thingsthat are happening, but nothing
on the big stage.
And when we brought that backthe appetite from the sponsors,
(52:18):
from the footballing bodieseveryone wanted to be involved,
whereas before it was likeknocking your head against a
brick wall trying to get theseorganizations involved.
They're not saying, well, whydo you need to do this, trying
to get these organizationsinvolved?
They're not saying, well, whydo you need to do this?
Now they understand why we needto do this and the footballing
organizations themselves havegot sort of um programs in place
where they are, where theyunderstand that there is an
(52:39):
issue around representation fromthe communities and they are
actively working towards tryingto increase the representation.
But we are here to say we havebeen in football for a while.
We are in football.
Let's celebrate the industry,because there are people who are
working behind the scenes.
There are owners who are SouthAsian.
There are people who areworking in media, which we see
(53:00):
every day on our screens.
Now, you know, you switch on toChampions League coverage.
You might see RashminChowdhury's.
You know has has hosted theballon d'or, for god's sake.
Yeah, from a south asianbackground, bangladeshi back
seem a jazz.
Well, who's been sort of theirmanaged bassin?
Who's been on our screens for awhile?
We've got radio, so there isthat representation, but
(53:23):
ultimately, yes, we are lookingfor numbers on the pitch and the
numbers on the pitchunfortunately are not
proportionate to who we aretoday in this society, and that
is what many of us and it's oneof my missions to help increase
the numbers of South Asians inthe game that is for me, it's
the next step.
Speaker 2 (53:43):
There's an awful lot going on.
There's an awful lot that hasgone on, but if we don't invest
in ourselves, one thing thatI've learned in my career four
careers that I've had now is youcan't wait for people.
You cannot wait.
Find something, and you've saidit again so much more
eloquently than I ever will.
(54:03):
Find what your passion is, andwe hear this from everybody.
Go, find something that youlove doing and get on with it.
Speaker 1 (54:10):
It's like these guys.
You know, I'm sure you've seenthese inspirational,
motivational talkers,celebrities on Instagram.
One thing which is veryconsistent with them all is they
say just start.
Yes, okay, we can all sort ofaspire to look perfect, to start
a podcast, for example, in afantastic environment, with the
(54:34):
lighting correct, et cetera, etcetera, but ultimately you just
need to start, because you cankeep putting things off and say
I'll do something, I'll dosomething.
You just need to start youyourself.
Like you sort of said, in termsof myself being an inspiration
to you, you are an inspirationto me in terms of what you're
doing, what you've done in yourspace and in terms of this
(54:54):
podcast.
I'm really looking forward tosort of hearing who else you've
spoken to.
It'd be great if there's anyonethat you would like to speak to
who you think I may know.
I'm fully prepared to sort ofdo introductions, and even in
terms of, in the uk, in india,you know, I'm quite happy to
sort of do introductions, andeven in terms of in the UK, in
India, you know, I'm quite happyto sort of you know, pick up
the phone and say listen, speakto this guy, joel.
I know he sports West Ham, butlisten.
(55:16):
You need to speak with him.
Keep doing what you're doing,man, and you know I say this to
many people as well.
You know it may be tough.
You know I've certainly seenit's tough.
You know it is tough, it can betough, but this is the only way
that we're going to thrive,right?
This is the only way, is there?
Speaker 2 (55:31):
anything you want to plug, stuff that you're doing
right now.
Final messages.
Speaker 1 (55:35):
Yeah, just in terms of, like I said, especially
within the South Asian space,not just in sport, but our time
is now it's happening.
I wouldn't say, as such, ridethe wave but just get involved.
Wave but just get involved.
Whatever sort of industry youare in, whether you're in sport,
finance, you know, music,entertainment, whatever it is in
any particular niche, you know,start, do something, start
(55:57):
getting involved, start speakingabout it.
In terms of what I'm involved inis obviously the south asian
space, both here in the uk andobviously in india.
India wise is the agency withinthe uk is around sort of South
Asian advocacy around footballunder-representation.
We're doing the Asian FootballAwards again in 2026.
So obviously a plug for that Ifthere are any potential
(56:20):
sponsors.
You know of anyone who'slistening.
Where can anyone find youonline?
Instagram, so quite big onInstagram at Abiljeet Rehal on
Facebook, linkedin.
Just search up my name.
I'm on that, quite, as you know, very vocal on there, so for
people to sort of contact mearound that.
But yeah, it's just South Asian, south Asian representation,
south Asian in sport.
(56:40):
That's what I'm all about andthat's my focus, fantastic.
Speaker 2 (56:45):
Keep on going.
Thanks so much.
This has been awesome, given mean awful lot to think about,
and, I'm sure, folks who aregonna listen to this as well, um
, reach out to me, reach out tobuljit.
Anything that we have shared,spoken about, kind of, pokes
your interest and you kind ofthink you know what I really,
really need to get involved inthat, because that's one of the
(57:07):
primary reasons why I'membarking on this exercise.
So, yeah, we're south asians,we're punjabis, we do this in
our sleep and now we are, we'regoing to do some damage, and
that's what this is about.
Thank you, take care.
Speaker 1 (57:23):
You take care of yourself and hopefully we'll
speak soon, man we will yes, manbye.
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