Non-League and Academy football writer

Urfat Hussain was the captain of London APSA’s first team, and he used to play in the Essex Senior League (step 5) for them. However, Urfat has real experience of playing at that level of non-League football, and the former Leyton-Wingate, Sporting Bengal United and Eton Manor player is someone with real experience in the game, having also coached in the game since he finished his playing career. I recently had the pleasure of speaking to Urfat, about some of his memories of his time with London APSA, from the Essex Business Houses League, to playing in tournaments, and also the Essex Senior League. 

Could you talk me through a bit about your background in football, prior to joining London APSA?

Urfat: Prior to joining London APSA, as a youngster I trained with West Ham United, but I didn’t get a scholarship or anything like that. I then went to Leyton-Wingate, and I also then played for Ahle Sunnah, which was a club that was formed before London APSA. I also played for Manor Park and Central Park, and this was all before London APSA was even formed.

Could you talk me through a bit about the history of London APSA, as a club?

Urfat: London APSA was a breakup of a few different football teams, and these were Red Star, Ahle Sunnah and Wanstead Wanderers. What happened was that in around 1997/98 there was an international trial day for Pakistan, to go and represent the Pakistan national team, as well as playing against them. So what happened was, was that around 500 British born Pakistanis went to Manchester for a trial day, and that was run by an organisation that was called APSA (the Anglo Pakistani Sports Association). 

A couple of the guys at Ahle Sunnah, such as myself, the goalkeeper and a couple of other players, we went up to Manchester for this football trial day. They narrowed it down to about 40 players. We then went back for a second trial day, and they picked out of the London guys five of the players, four of which were players for Ahle Sunnah, of which included Zulfi Ali, who was the chairman and manager at the time. They also picked Anj, Imran Khan (the goalkeeper) and myself. So we went to this international tour, and while we were out there we said to each other that we should form our own team, which would be an elite team that would play in mainstream football in England, rather than in the Asian leagues. So that’s where London APSA was formed.

We wanted to change the name of the club to All Peoples’ Sports Association, and so we just changed the name of it, but we kept the same abbreviation from it. So London APSA was formed in the beautiful cities of Islamabad and Faisalabad, in Pakistan.

How did you come about joining London APSA? And what are some of your earliest memories with the club?

Urfat: So the above answer to the previous question explains how I came about joining London APSA. But for myself, I’d never really played with footballers from an Asian background, but I can remember seeing Zulfi in my local park, and he asked me at that time if I’d like to come along to London APSA (still known as Ahle Sunnah, at the time). But at that time I was a bit apprehensive, and I said to him that I was happy at Leyton-Wingate. I did play at a couple of tournaments for Ahle Sunnah, and I enjoyed being there, and I later joined London APSA and I carried on playing with them. I started off with them in the Asian league, which we won many times, and later we played in the Essex Business Houses League.

We started in Division Three of the Essex Business Houses League, and then we got some coverage from the BBC, who followed us around for about a year for a documentary about us. It was about three or four of us footballers, who were practicing our religion and still playing mainstream football. So we did that documentary, and after getting a lot of coverage we managed to get into the UK Asian Championships. The first year that we entered into the competition (it was the third edition of the championships) we were just some youngsters from east London, with everyone thinking who are we! But we ending up winning the whole thing.

In our first year at that tournament we won the final at Celtic Park, and then we went back year on year, doing alright at times. However, we did the tournament again, on a couple of occasions. Then there was also the Umbro Cup (in Manchester), which we won many times. We also won a tournament at Chelsea, as well. At the age of 24 I tore my ACL, and at that time people thought that I wasn’t going to be able to make it back, but I worked very hard and I had my operation, and thanks to my contacts at West Ham, I went back there to do my nine months of rehab at the club. I later came back to the Essex Senior League for six/seven seasons with London APSA, before playing for Gants Hill in Sunday football, and later CSM London, in Sunday football.

What are some of your standout memories from matches that you played for the club in?

Urfat: Standout memories in games, definitely include playing in the FA Cup, for London APSA. I was captain of the club at the time, and so I actually got the opportunity to do a photoshoot with the FA Cup trophy, and me and one of the Sporting Bengal players got to lift the trophy together. Another outstanding memory was featuring on Match Of The Day, before our FA Cup qualifying round match with Sporting Bengal. There’s not a lot of Asian guys at my level of football, who can say that they featured in the FA Cup, on television. The presenter (Manish) actually mentioned my name on the programme, and so to be honest that was quite an honour.

What are some of your standout memories from your time at London APSA?

Urfat: I think that winning things, such as winning leagues or trophies, like the one at Celtic Park or at Chelsea, were amazing achievements. The big thing for me was helping to bring through some of the youth footballers into the team, and to be a role model for them. That was a big plus for me.

What was it like to play Saturday football (in non-League) for London APSA?

Urfat: It was good, and it was an eye opener, don’t get me wrong. As going from playing in parks and smaller stadiums like Leyton Wingate, to going onto playing at some of the bigger stadiums at step 5, was a massive achievement. Don’t get me wrong, it was difficult. Obviously there was a small element of racism that we had to endeavour in our lifetime, but we had to fight our way through it.

Who were in your opinion some of the toughest/most difficult teams (for their quality) that you faced, during your time at London APSA?

Urfat: I think that Brentwood Town and also Concord Rangers were ones. Also, Romford had a great side at the time. We as a club were very young as a team into Saturday football, and some of the other clubs had long term experience on how to play their football in those leagues. And this is something that I want to do now, to give some of that knowledge and experience that I’ve got, back to clubs.

Do you think that we’ll ever see a senior London APSA team return to play in the non-League system?

Urfat: When we were younger we were helped by a lot of people, such as Zulfi, and so people helped us out a lot. Nowadays we are more established and we’ve got businesses, and so we’d be able to put money back into clubs. We’ve got a plan to bring back London APSA into Saturday football. There’s a young lad called Hafiz, who’s got his UEFA B license, and we’ve got a youth project as part of London APSA, which is currently running. So watch this space, as we’ve got a five year plan to relaunch London APSA as a football club. I don’t know if we’re going to get into senior football straight away, but we’re definitely going to go into Saturday football, rather than Sunday football. So it’s only a matter of time before this football club (London APSA) comes back.