AN ex-member on the committee of the Bradford Sunday Alliance League believes more should be done to tackle racism in grassroots football.

Shazad Parvez has witnessed it all in his 20 plus years involved with Bradford amateur football, both on the board and as a referee.

He is also known as the first Asian football scout in the country when he worked for Bradford City under Chris Kamara.

His spell saw him organise the first ever professional club match against a UK Asian XI, which took place at Valley Parade.

From community relations manager to associate director, Parvez has done it all in his decade working at Bradford (Park Avenue).

It was in his latest role where he saw a concerning lack of diversity in non-league football boardrooms.

He said: “I went to nearly every Avenue away game (last season) and there were no Asian or black people in the boardroom, apart from me. It is a big problem.

“National League, grassroots and amateur football, all these committees need to appoint more Asian and black people, otherwise nothing is going to change.

“I have sat on the Bradford Sunday Alliance, Bradford FA, and West Riding County FA board, but I have been the only one (black or Asian person).

“I am going to get outvoted every time so last year I resigned from the Bradford Sunday Alliance committee.

“I did it for two reasons. My health was deteriorating and I got the feeling that I was unwanted.

“They don’t have to tell me, I can see it in their faces. Every time I felt that I wasn’t part of that group.

“I have been fighting the County FA and finally they have put someone (Humayun Islam) on the board now.”

Parvez also refereed in the West Yorkshire League and West Riding County Amateur League.

It was a job he did until 2007 and a place where he felt racially abused.

He added: “I decided to be a referee and I got a lot of abuse.

“I went to certain parts of Leeds where they had never seen an Asian referee before.

“After the game they would come up to me and say well done referee. But, during the game they would call me names.”

Parvez is still involved in a charity, at the Manningham Mills Sports and Community Association, he set up over two decades ago.

Sports Campaign Against Racism (SCAR) was launched in 1999 to help ethnic minorities from all backgrounds to get into sport or to progress in sport.

Although, Parvez thinks his charity has been successful with events such as the Bradford Summer Cup (a SCAR pre-season friendly tournament) and a proposed community day at Horsfall next year, he feels more can be done regionally to stop racism.

He added: “There is ‘Kick It Out’ and ‘Show Racism the Red Card’ but I believe smaller groups like SCAR need to be based in different areas. It is the much smaller groups like ours that don’t get any money.”