By Asia Samachar | Britain |
The Football Association (FA) of England celebrated Vaisakhi for the first time at the iconic Wembley stadium on Monday.
More than 500 guests from various Sikh organisations gathered at stadium in an event organised by the FA and Wales Cricket Board.
The event included interactive panels which featured some of the leading Sikhs across the game such as former referee Jarnail Singh, first team sports scientist at Aston Villa Aman Shergill, and role model in the female game, Kira Rai of Derby County, reports SkySports.
“I think it’s really special just to see a room full of Sikhs and South Asians all coming together to celebrate not only Vaisakhi but football as well,” she tells SkySports.
“It would have been easy if I had a female South Asian role model to look up to, but in a way, I guess it was added motivation for me to make sure I get there so that younger girls today have someone to look up to.”
Dal Darroch, FA’s diversity and inclusion strategic programmes head, said: “One way to connect with people is through their faith, and so by having people here that are seeing the connection between faith and football is one way in which we can demonstrate the game is for them.”
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