Rivo & Rich meet... Arun Brar

The Grassroots Football Coach

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In this episode, Mark 'Rivo' Rivers & Richard Brant are joined by Arun Brar, a grassroots coach from Berks & Bucks FA.
On the pod, Arun talks about his early memories of football, how he fell in love with the game and provides insight into his journey and some of the challenges he has faced along the way as coach from a historically underrepresented ethnic community.
Arun openly discusses some of the potential barriers to participation for Sikh families wanting to get involved in football and shares his thoughts on traditional formats of the game and how they may need to evolve to offer a truly inclusive experience for all.
He also shares witnessing his brother being racially abused during a match over 20 years ago, opens up about his own experiences of racial stereotyping in his role as a coach and discusses the impact this has had on his life and how he is committed to changing the game for the better as a result.
The team then delve deeper into his coaching career starting out as a young volunteer at cricket in his mid-teens before moving into grassroots football at age of 21. Arun also talks about his placement at QPR as part of the FA's Club Placement Programme which provides opportunities at professional clubs for coaches from underrepresented backgrounds and more recently as part of The FA Mentee Development Programme.
There's also chat about Johan Cruyff, Arun's love for Jurgen Klopp & Liverpool and his memory of Michael Owen's wonder goal vs Argentina at World Cup '98.
Music by Darren Fellerdale.