A charity football match has been scheduled to strengthen ties between the town’s diverse communities and Greater Manchester Police.
Rochdale’s Bangladeshi Arts and Sports Association (BASA) has organized a match against a GMP team at the Crown Oil Arena on Monday, May 23 – which will raise money for Springhill Hospice.
BASA is a voluntary organization founded in Rochdale in 1990 which aims to promote community cohesion and tackle social exclusion, individually through the power of sports and arts.
Last year the group launched a ten-week fitness project at Apocalypse Training Systems gym which saw 30 men aged between 35-55, from both BASA and GMP, training together.
Doliz Miah, who organized the ‘Community Cohesion Cup’ for BASA, said the upcoming game will look to build on the match the group held last year.
He said: “We though about how to engage with the police more so I devised a 10-week fitness program where we look to train together.
“They started becoming friends, more than people training together. The relationship started to build and we were looking at how to celebrate this project.
“We spoke to Rochdale AFC and came up with the idea of having the match at the stadium. The club and the police want to look at engaging with diverse communities and we want to reconnect with both of them.”
The match will take place between 6.30pm and 9pm with tickets priced at £2 for adults and £1 for children, with all money raised being donated to Springhill Hospice.
Doliz, who lives in Norden, says he hopes the ongoing work with GMP and the football match will lead to people seeing police officers as human beings first and foremost.
“We want people, when they see a policeman, to see them as human beings,” said Doliz, who has previously raised money for Springhill by running a 10k and climbing Scafell Pike alongside daughter Zaara.
“The main criteria for us was to reconnect with GMP and have more of a community feel between the diverse communities and GMP themselves.
“They shouldn’t be seen as police officers, they should be seen as a neighborhood person who’s there to help the community and work with us.”
Doliz added that the match will give younger members of BASA the chance to watch a game at their local football club.
He said: “If they live in Rochdale they should go and watch their local team so this will give them the chance to watch a football match and what better way than to watch people they are already connected with.
“I am a firm believer in supporting local charities. There’s always that strong connection with Springhill Hospice and it’s a no brainer for us really.”
