BURNLEY Football Club are spreading the word in an attempt to mine the untapped potential of the Asian community as supporters and would-be players.

Dino Maamria has been appointed as the Clarets' first Ethnic Minorities Development Officer thanks to a grant from the Football Foundation.

Maamria, a Tunisian under-21 international who plays for Nationwide Conference side Southport, will work hand-in-hand with the club's football in the community programme.

And his brief is to forge a closer link between the Clarets and the ethnic minority youngsters in and around Burnley.

Maamria, who is also a coach at the Turf Moor centre of excellence, will be heading into local schools with a high proportion of Asian students to give coaching and football clinics with the aim of introducing them to the sport and encouraging them to become Clarets fans and potential stars of the future.

He said: "We've got to get more ethnic minority people involved with the football club.

"We want to encourage them to come to the club.

"You don't see many ethnic minority people coming to games which is sad. We need to get more of them involved with the football club and take it from there. We have a big Asian base and that's why we need to do something about it sooner rather than later.

"It's a big challenge and I'm looking forward to it."

Maamria will also be promoting the 'Keep Racism out of Football' message and hopes that as an overseas player in the semi-professional game he can be an example to the youngsters he will be dealing with.

The former Glentoran and Doncaster Rovers front man added: "Hopefully they can look at me as some sort of a symbol. I have been quite successful at what I have been doing and they should see that nothing can stop them from following the same path. We have got to get more of them interested in football and believing in themselves and if I see any talent I can bring that to the centre of excellence."

Funding is in place for the first year of the project but an application has already gone in to the Football Foundation to try and secure the cash to cover costs for a further two years.

The community programme already works with ethnic minority youngsters and community officer Dean Ramsdale is looking for Maamria to further develop that role.

He said: "We're looking at getting children involved in playing football, boys and girls.

"They have now got a person they can get in contact with straight away and the next stage is to come and support Burnley. If there are any out there who are good enough to become centre of excellence players then even better."