The Mumtaz Ellahi Community Sports Award was presented to Oldham based Abdul Basit at the 2017 Fusion Awards.

The award is in memory of  Mumtaz Ellahi who was a dedicated sports coach who sadly died of Cancer in 2007.

Five individuals were honoured with special honours from sport to education.

Winners of the annual Awards were announced at a glittering ceremony on Saturday May 13 at King George’s Hall, Blackburn.

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Since he was a teenager Oldham based Abdul Basit wanted to organise sports tournaments and for the past 20 years he has helped to bring communities together through a range of sporting events and campaigns.

Abdul took charge of Dynamo Bengal at the age of 17 and was then handed the reins for Shahjalal Unity FC and over a 15 year period won numerous football tournaments and accolades nationwide. 

He was a leading figure in arranging football tours to Bangladesh and Portugal.
In 2001 after the Oldham Riots he established the Shahjalal Unity Youth project which focuses on community cohesion activities.

Abdul was subsequently asked to be manager and coach of Oldham Athletic Ladies and he moved on to become manager and coach of Oldham Tigers.

In 2007 he was one of two coaches picked by the FA to visit Malawi to coach 2000 orphans over a two week period accompanied by Viv Anderson.

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Through his coaching he has also worked in Bolton with youngsters and developed his own cultural awareness and anti-racism workshop sessions.

In one of his latest projects he established Oldham Veterans Football Club (OVFC) which aimed to reconnect and engage veteran footballers (over 35-years-old) of all abilities to compete in structured leagues as well as to stay active and promote health and fitness within the community.

Initially they set up with around 20 members from the Oldham borough, the project took off and snowballed at such a rapid pace that within two years they had over 100 members from different professional backgrounds and from various religious and diverse ethnicities. 

Although at the start all of their members were from different areas of Oldham, the project has attracted members from neighbouring towns from across the North of England who actively take part in their sessions on a regular basis from towns such as Rochdale, Hyde, Leeds, Preston, Manchester, Blackburn to name a few. 

Abdul’s new project for 2017 is the ‘Community Friendship Vets Cup’ at Oldham Athletics Stadium, a tournament from 3 Northern Counties (North West, Lancashire & Yorkshire).