FA, Football Participation/Development Director, Kelly Simmons, SJFA’s Operations Head Safrazali Valjy, SJFA’s Development Head Hussein Pirbhai, SJFA Chair Mohammed Valjy and BBC Asian Network presenter Noreen Khan (Photo: Stanmore Jafferys Football Academy)

Elham Asaad Buaras

Stanmore Jafferys Football Academy (SJFA) won The FA For All award at the fourth Asian Football Award (AFA)  on November 14.

The awards, now in their fourth year, were created to reward and recognise Asians in the football and aim to provide a platform for Asians to promote their work. This year’s ceremony took place at The Grange St Paul’s Hotel in London and was hosted by Noreen Khan from the BBC Asian Network and Dharmesh Sheth from Sky Sports News.

Stanmore Jaffery’s were nominated following the success of this year’s Salaam Cup. The cup, organised and run by the group, aims at promoting the message of peace, unity, respect and harmony and this year hosted over 500 players from 57 teams across 11 different communities. The tournament included a family fun day, stalls and activities for children and was supported by over 100 volunteers.

Chair of the SJFA Mohammed Valjy explained to The Muslim News how important their work can be in their community.

“It’s amazing to be recognised at the Asian Football Awards. We only really started with this two years ago and this year we were nominated for a best of an award, which was great, but to also be nominated for an award which the FA is sponsoring and win it, it’s a wonderful experience.”

He told The Muslim News in a statement, “The football project at Stanmore Jaffery’s began because, as a community, we were playing football weekly at Ruislip Girls, five and seven-a-side games but it wasn’t really organised. We looked at people within the community who we knew could play football and could be coaches and we worked hard to get them qualified. Within a year, we were FA-affiliated and governance is the bedrock of how we started and all our coaches have safeguarding checks and first aid training.”

Middlesex FA Chief Executive, Leigh O’Connor, spoke of his pride of the academy: “The volunteers at the club work tirelessly to ensure that their young players not only receive the support they need to develop as players but as people too and the work they do to promote respect and inclusivity within the game is highly valued here at Middlesex FA. The For All award is great recognition for their hard work during the past year and we look forward to seeing this great work continue in 2018.”