Birmingham Tigers
Birmingham Tigers
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Asian, Arab and African communities
were not participating in football at a
higher level, we found that most of the
amateur football clubs in our local
communities were not formed to
enter the higher level of football;
for them it was a good method
to socialise with their friends
and to remain active (which is
great for participation but not
for developing the raw talent
of young footballers).
After speaking to several
young people from our local
communities, the growing
concern among them was
that they were not involved
in a structured youth football
club, thus football remained a
hobby that was played at school or
at local public parks, street corners
and galleys. And for the few that were
lucky to be involved in a structured
football set up from their youth, they did
not excel further to play at professional
football level; and even if they did reach
a professional football academy, the
majority of them were released without
a contract.
Therefore, our aim is to help the
youth of our local communities to
realise their childhood dream of one day
becoming a professional footballer, or
at least play to a semi-professional level
where they can develop their hobby to a
paid part-time level.”
Integration
“Our club currently works under a
system that is like La Liga in terms of
operating a senior team as well as a B
team. Our club has around thirty players
and the squad is divided in half. Fifteen
players currently play for the senior time
and the other fifteen play in the B team.
football, futsal and cricket. Moreover,
the Birmingham Tigers organisation
was established in 2009 to address
the sporting and lifetime learning
opportunities for the hard-to-reach
groups who were disadvantaged
through
social,
racial
or
economic reasons.
The club and organisation
views football as a tool to
provide social and physical
education to our youth but
to also engage with the
marginalised groups from
areas such as Aston, Lozells,
Newtown, Washwood Heath,
Ladywood,
Small
Heath,
Bordesley Green, Sparkbrook,
Sparkhill,
Nechells,
Balsall
Heath, South Yardley, Springfield,
Stechford and Yardley North.”
Challenges
This is done to provide every squad
member with an equal opportunity to
play regardless of age and compete
against each other to progress further
and eventually move to the senior
team. Concurrently, if players are not
performing to the required standards, or
if they are performing well, there is space
to relegate and promote players between
the teams, which allows the players to
familiarise themselves with one another
and create a team camaraderie.”
Community
“We would consider ourselves to
be a community club and organisation
because the club and organisation
runs on the efforts and hard work of
volunteers who are aiming to provide
our communities with opportunities in
“Some of the challenges that the club
faces in the next five years lie in terms
of finance to build the infrastructure of
a semi-professional football club and the
recruitment of committed volunteers
and fans. For a long time, the club has
functioned on limited resources and a
limited number of volunteers who help
with the day to day operations at the
club. If we are to expand, we need to
attain the services of more volunteers,
whom we will look to develop as well,
and who are willing to give up some of
their time to a beneficial cause such as
ours.
We aim to combat this by introducing
open days where members of different
communities can register to become
volunteers as well as footballers for the
club. In regards to financial issues, we
currently do not have a principle sponsor
thus finding an organisation or business
“The club has made great strides with the limited amount of
resources that we possess but there is still much to do to reach
our goal of becoming a semi-professional football club.”
to become the principle sponsor of our
football club will be a challenge but one
that is welcome.
Besides attaining a principle sponsor,
other challenges that the club faces in the
next five years is marketing our brand.
The club has arranged for plans such as
investing our time and efforts in to our
social media accounts to create a social
media presence and following. We also
face challenges in terms of content, more
specifically the quality of content that we
need to produce to convey ourselves as
a semi-professional club. To do so, we
must invest in our photography and
videography equipment to produce top
quality content and volunteers.”
Ambitions
“The club has made great strides
with the limited amount of resources
that we possess but there is still much
to do to reach our goal of becoming a
semi-professional football club. We have
plans to release Matchday Programme
flyers and develop them into Match Day
programme Magazines for every home
game so that the communities that we
are targeting are aware of our games.
We also aim to raise awareness in
the community about the challenges
that we have faced upon entering a
semi-professional feeder league, and to
encourage more clubs and players in
Birmingham to start playing at this level
of football.
Our ambitions also include tackling
racism in football which remains a
barrier for many aspiring footballers,
as well as addressing the poor attitudes
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towards discipline, diet and punctuality
that many young people suffer from.
Over the next five years, our short-
term goal is to develop our infrastructure,
facilities and acquire more volunteers as
well as to focus on getting further in our
Cup competitions. We would love to
do well and enter the FA Cup and get
past the preliminary stages, and to get
through the knock out stages of the FA
Vase Cup competition.
Developing a solid fan base and
being promoted every year in the league
will also be a goal of the club. We also
have plans to introduce flood lights,
a PA system, stands for fans to
sit on to watch the game as
well as providing the
community with social
activities as part of
our games such as
bouncy
castles,
face painting for
children
and
food stalls, to
create a family
f r i e n d l y
environment.
Through
this,
we
also hope to
develop
our
fundraising
strategy.
A
major ambition
of the club is to
establish itself as
a
semi-professional
football club in the future
and to provide a platform for
young people from Birmingham
to be scouted and move on to earn whilst
playing for bigger clubs.
The club has taken its first steps on
the football ladder after entering the
Midlands Football League (MFL). Our
long-term goal is to get promoted to
the Evo Stick League and to establish
ourselves as a national semi-professional
football club, playing in the National
Vanarama League.”
With thanks - Shazad Hussain
www.footballfocusmag.com
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