The Asian Football Awards 2012 - Nominations Shortlist

The inaugural Asian Football Awards will be held on January 24, 2012 at London's Wembley Stadium with the support from The FA and Kick It Out and it is a partnership between Initiate Sports and Inventive Sports.

Here are the top five nominations shortlist in each category!


Player of the Year
Zesh Rehman (Kitchee SC – Hong Kong)
Anwar Uddin (Barnet FC)
Michael Chopra (Ipswich Town)
Indy Aujla (RRFC Montegnee - Belgium)
Netan Sansara (Paeek FC - Cyprus)

Coach of the year
Nilio Bagga (Samba Soccer Schools)
Nas Bashir (Hayes & Yeading FC)
Bal Singh (Khalsa Football Academy)
Taff Islam (ProTouch and Arsenal)
Chris Dolby

Asian Woman in Football
Vanisha Patel (Charlton Women)
Rimla Akhtar (Muslim Women's Sports Foundation)
Sophia Rashid (Women United AFC)
Priti Trivedi (Scottish Premier League)
Sangi Patel (QPR)

Young Player of the year
Jasbir Singh – (Solihull Moors FC)
Danny Batth (Wolves FC – on loan Sheff Weds)
Adil Nabi (West Bromwich Albion)
Aaron Singh Sekhon (Partick Thistle FC)
Malvind Benning (Walsall FC)

Football Development project of the year
Young Asian Voices (Sunderland)
Chelsea Asian Soccer Star
QPR – Player Development Centre (West London)
Samba Soccer Schools (Warwickshire)
Diversity Academy (Nottingham)

Football Foundation of the year
Zesh Rehman Foundation
Punjabi Wolves
Muslim Women's Sports Foundation
Osmani Trust
London Tigers

Investors in Football
Ilyas Khan (Accrington Stanley)
Lakshmi Mittal and Tony Fernandes (QPR)
Venkatesh and Balaji Rao (Blackburn)
Shahid Azeem


Football behind the scenes award - 'Administration'
Priti Trivedi (SPL) - Admin & Finance Manager
Raj Athwal (Watford FC) – Commercial Manager
Sunil Kaikini (Head of Media Premier League)
Ravinder Masih (Aston Villa FC) – Community Relations Manager
Javed Khan (Finance Director Premier League)

Football behind the scenes award - 'Medical'
Sangi Patel (QPR) - Physio
Dr Zaf Iqbal (Liverpool)
Jazz Sodhi (Wolves) – Head Academy Physio
Dr Ansar Zaman (Wigan FC)
Poora Singh (Birmingham FC) - Physio

Football Media award
Rajvir Rai (The Daily Telegraph)
Manish Bhasin (BBC)
Mayur Bhanji (World Sport Group)
Vaishali Bhardwaj (Freelance)
Karthi Gnanasegaram (BBC)

Grass Roots Heroes
Ash Rahman (ProTouch)
Bal Singh (Khalsa Football Academy)
Butch Fazal (Luton AFC)
Karl Sanghera (Concorde Juniors)
Mamun Chowdhury (Beamont Athletic)

Asian Community Club of the year
Albion Sports (Bradford)
London Tigers (London)
Sporting Khalsa (Birmingham)
London APSA (London)
Sporting Bengal (London)

Inspiration Award
Rikin Shah (power chair user – Coach – UEFA level B)
Butch Fazal (Asian Football Forum)
Permi Jhooti (FIFA Ambassador)
Piara Powar (Director FARE)
Dinesh Vijayan (Arsenal FC)


Congratulations to all that made the shortlist!!! Looking forward to meeting you on January 24, 2012 at London's Wembley Stadium.

Many thanks to all those that put forward nominations. It was great to read about so many inspirational Asians doing fantastic work in football.

web: www.asianfootballawards.co.uk
twitter: @AFootballAwards