LONDON - CHELSEA have launched an initiative aimed at identifying promising young players from a south Asian background in a bid to address the community's chronic under-representation in English football.

Britain is home to over three million people with family roots in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka but the country's largest ethnic minority has virtually no presence in the national sport at the professional level.

Zesh Rehman, the former Fulham defender, is one of a handful of players from a south Asian background to have made it to the Premier League, and he is backing Chelsea's move to stage a weekend of trials specifically for young Asians in early May.

Rehman, who is now at Bradford on loan from Championship side QPR, said: 'I think clubs need to take a more active role and engage with their communities and I think it's a great project.

'Chelsea are a Premier League club with a massive profile across the world I am sure other clubs can look at that and use it as a template for future reference.'

Chelsea's initiative is being backed by the Football Association, the anti-racist organisation Kick it Out, and the Asian Media Group.

The club is planning to stage open trials for 10 to 14-year-olds over the Mayday holiday weekend and will offer residential trials at the club's academy to any youngsters deemed to have the potential to become the next John Terry or Frank Lampard.

The lack of Asians in English football has been attributed to cultural factors such as parental pressure for boys to concentrate on academic studies, and the fact that soccer is not as popular as cricket among many south Asian families.

But there is also a concern that promising young players from an Asian background get overlooked by club scouts because of negative stereotyping, notably a perception that they are insufficiently athletic to make the grade. -- AFP