Bradford Sunday Alliance side Albion Sports have lifted the prestigious UK Asian Football Championships, beating Sporting Bengal from Kent in the final at Ibrox Stadium.

The squad, who are currenlty top of the Premier Division, played four games in two days to win the annual tournament for the third time.

Afterwards there was a banquet in Glasgow for the players where guest speaker Mark Hateley praised the emerging football talents in the Asian community. Albion manager Kulwinder Singh said: "It was a tremendous achievement because we had two key players missing.

"I am overwhelmed. We only arrived back in Bradford at 5am yesterday. We were proud to represent Bradford."

The tournament is in its sixth year and more than 150 teams across Britain played through the various stages.

The final eight who battled it out at the weekend were Albion, SASA Scotland, Rochdale FC, Derby FC, Sporting Bengal, Preston FC, Wolverhampton Azard and Gravesend. Narinder Sandhu and Asif Hussain, who was player of the tournament, scored the vital goals to help Albion lift the trophy in front of about 2,000 people.

Afterwards, Scotland's sports minister Frank McAveety presented the trophy to the proud Bradford team.

The championship's main aim is to help stop racism and to build an affiliation between the Asian community and mainstream football.

Prem Singh, Event Director of the Championships, said: "Black players have made an impact in football. Viv Anderson broke the mould when he pulled on the England jersey back in the seventies. Now you just have to look at England and the national side.

"There are hundreds of black players in the game down south and the backbone of the England team until recently was made up of Emile Heskey, Sol Campbell and Rio Ferdinand.

"I feel it is now time for the Asian community players to fulfil so much of their promise."