Our Game Too
30 Imrul Gazi & The Tower Hamlets Hotbed Conundrum
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Episode notes
OGT speaks to Imrul Gazi, manager of Sporting Bengal.
A northerner, Imrul has been living in London for over a decade and has been involved in Tower Hamlets football for that whole period.
Tower Hamlets presents a conundrum. It is the definition of a football hot-bed. Nearly 50 Sunday League teams, the area is known for having the highest density of folk of Bangladeshi origin and we know they play football, as a percentage, more than any other ethnicity in the UK.
Anwar Uddin is from Tower Hamlets. But where are the rest? We were supposed to talk about Imrul and Sporting Bengal who play in step 5 of the football pyramid but instead the conversation turned into a history of Tower Hamlets football over the last 30 years and a dive into the issues, both internal and external that have prevented the are from producing more players in the English professional game. Can anything be done to get the area to all pull towards the same goal? Do we even know what the goal is?
Another fascinating conversation, this will be part 1 of 2 with @ImrulGazi.
Asians in football... we're getting there.
Music:
Naraina by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4112-naraina