THE wave of national pride which began when football came home for Euro '96 has engulfed the country for the start of the new English soccer season today.

However, while fans of the glorious game come from all colours and creeds, the same cannot be said of the players.

According to the Football Association, not a single Asian footballer will run out with a professional side today.

But a group of Blackburn-based young Asian soccer fanatics who play for the Bank Top Rovers side have carried out a Europe-wide research project which could hold some answers to the mystery.

The video study was co-ordinated by District Detached Youth Co-ordinator Tony Docherty under the title Racism, Sport and Culture.

He said: "The team interviewed a range of people who have some experience or something to say about the issue: Asian referees, Asian adults who had positive careers but were deterred, PE teachers and the police. They also examined their own experiences." Among the findings, Mr Docherty says young Asians face people who believe they prefer cricket, have the wrong physique or simply cannot play. Some pressure also comes from home where many parents believe football "to be a bit of a thugs game".

But Mr Docherty added: "They like to play football, like music, won't ever drink and love their faith. They are quite comfortable with the fact that they are Muslims as well as football fans.

"Football is a passionate interest for all members of the group, most of whom play in a local league, which they won in 1995. However, two years earlier their team was banned from another league following a dispute resulting from a series of racist incidents directed at team members, most of whom are Muslims, of Asian heritage."

During the study, the 14-strong Bank Top team also travelled to Spain to take part in an international football tournament and investigated the impressive face of their own Muslim culture at the Alhambra Palace in a bid to chase away any remaining self-doubt. Their findings are contained in a video produced by Lancashire film company Folly Pictures.

The project grew up out of one of the many initiatives set up by the Lancashire Youth Service to target disaffected youth, but Tony and the team now plan to use it at presentations around the country.

Just last week a top-level debate was held at Ewood Park to discuss racism on and off the pitch.

The Lancashire Kicks Racism Out of Sport Campaign culminated in the formal signing of a Declaration Against Racism In Football.

And the FA has already commissioned its own study of the problems surrounding the issue called Asians Can't Play Football.

The findings will form the mainstay of the association's annual conference which will take place in Oldham in November.

FA spokesman Mark Sudbury said: "There does not seem to be one easy answer.

"What we have found is a very obvious parallel to the situation facing Afro-Caribbean background several years ago.

"We plan to work with schools, clubs and coaches to try and do something."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.