BUSY WEEKEND FOR INCLUSION AT WEST RIDING!

The Bank Holiday weekend saw County FA staff deliver various Inclusion events aimed at engaging under-represented groups within the game.

Ramadan League 

Friday night was the second week of the West Riding Ramadan League, where participants play 12.30am until 2am. The provision is aimed at those observing the Month of Ramadan who fast during daylight hours and pray in their local mosques in the evenings. The sessions are slowly growing in number as new players look to participate and word is spread. The League is being hosted by 3Gi Football Centre in Halifax and facility owner Tariq Hussain said “It’s great to be able to help local players take part in the game and we try to be flexible where possible and I love the idea as it mixes faith with football”.

National Football Museum trip

Saturday saw West Riding County FA run its first ever trip to The National Football Museum in Manchester with 30 participants from NEC (New and Emerging Communities) attending from Yorkshire St. Pauli, a Leeds based fan group for FC St Pauli, and The Kirklees’ Council Cohesion team. The Museum provided an ESOL learning resource for individuals who are taking part in ESOL courses and it is hoped that this trip will be the first of many ran by ourselves.

Charity Ramadan Iftar

The County’s first ever Charity Ramadan Iftar was held at Fleet Lane on Sunday evening and there was an 8 team tournament followed by fast opening which attracted over 100 people from across the County. Players competed in a 7 aside tournament and then joined in with group prayer and this was followed a meal inside the function rooms here at Fleet Lane. The event went down well and Kashif Mohammed, a local fundraiser said “It’s great to be able to let young people access the County facility and it’s good to see the County FA putting on these kinds of events as it will inspire young people to get into the game”.

SPECIAL THANKYOU!

We would like to give a special thankyou to Arshad Mahmood, a Halifax based football coach who supported all of the weekends’ events as a volunteer. Arshad was on hand to drive participants across to Manchester on Saturday and was also one of the referees on both Friday and Sunday, as well as serving food on Sunday. We appreciate his efforts throughout alongside the other volunteers who supported these events.