IPLSoccer Agrees Partnership With Sporting Equals
The next IPLSOCCER tournament has been confirmed to take place in Birmingham in June 2024 with Sporting Equals confirmed as the competition’s charity partner.
IPLSOCCER is the UK’s first televised British Asian 11-a-side football tournament.
Seven per cent of the overall British population are from South Asian, but there are just 12 British South Asian male footballers playing in the 92 English football teams, equating to 0.3% of the 4,000 professional players.
The aim of the event is to influence and facilitate an increased level of Asian integration into the elite professional football structure.
Sporting Equals is the official charity partner for the event and will provide a full community support programme centred around the British cities represented at the tournament.
Sporting Equals CEO, Arun Kang OBE, said: “This initiative is an important step in developing an inclusive Talent Pathway. Ahead of the formation of British Asians for Sporting Excellence (BASE) we confirmed that British Asians only make up 0.8% of professional athletes reported in the Race Representation Index 2022.
“Initiatives such as the IPL Soccer, combined with the work of BASE, will help address this by putting talent in front of scouts and forming role models of South Asian heritage.
“We are delighted to see the promise of women and girls teams in the near future too, through our work on South Asian Women in Football we know how under represented they are at the moment – but also how big an appetite there is to play. IPL Soccer, supported by such big names like Michael Owen, is only going to accelerate toward a more inclusive Talent Pathway.”
Sany Supra, Founder & CEO IPLSOCCER, added: “We are absolutely delighted to confirm Sporting Equals as the Official Charity Partner of IPLSOCCER.
“We share the same goal of making a difference in bringing about more opportunities to the youth in UK and the communities nationwide through this partnership.
“I am confident that together we shall tap into more unearthed sporting talents and give them a platform to showcase their skills. As well as being a pathway into the game, we shall be working directly within all communities to make further positive changes for all. We are all ecstatic on the great works that we shall be announcing hereon.”
Sixteen teams will be taking part next year, 14 of which will come from British cities with one from India and one from UAE. Each team will be required to have at least 12 players of Asian background. There will also be an inaugural women’s competition taking place alongside the men’s edition.
Each team will also include a former professional player, with Jermaine Pennant, Lee Hendrie and Marlon Harewood among those who took place at the pilot event at Pride Park, Derby, in 2022.
Each IPLSOCCER team will be ‘co-owned’ by a hand-picked global celebrity and all matches will be televised live on Asian TV.
IPL Ambassador and former England striker Michael Owen, said: “British South Asians continue to be under-represented in professional football. Improving those statistics and providing fully inclusive opportunities for all are at the core of the IPLSOCCER programme. IPLSOCCER is diverse, exciting and a reality.”
