A Format Whose Moment Has Arrived

Seven-a-side football has always existed in the margins of the game: on school pitches, in community leagues, and in the small-sided formats where most people actually play. What has changed in recent years is organisation. The International 7-a-Side Football Association, IFA7, has given the format an international framework, with structured competition, standardised rules, and a pathway from local leagues to international representation. As Vice President of IFA7 for the UK and UAE, Asad Shamim holds a role that spans two of the format's most promising territories, and the question he is asked most often is a simple one: what comes next?

Deepening the Grassroots

The first priority is foundations. Small-sided football is the most accessible version of the sport: it needs less space, fewer players, and lower costs than the eleven-a-side game. That accessibility makes it a powerful vehicle for participation, particularly in urban communities where full-size pitches are scarce. The immediate agenda in the UK involves broadening the base of organised seven-a-side competition, working with community clubs, schools, and local organisers so that talented players have somewhere structured to play and progress.

Asad Shamim brings a distinctive perspective to this work. His long record in sports advocacy, including the landmark five-year campaign that secured the first professional boxing licence for a boxer with Type 1 diabetes in the UK, reflects a consistent belief: sport should be opened up, not gated. That philosophy, described further on the about page, carries directly into the IFA7 mission of making competitive football available to players the traditional system overlooks.

Grassroots growth also depends on visibility. Players join what they can see, and part of the near-term agenda is simply making organised seven-a-side football more visible: showcase fixtures in accessible venues, partnerships with community organisations that already gather young people, and coverage that presents the format as a destination in its own right rather than a training exercise for the eleven-a-side game. Every new league that takes root creates local organisers, referees, and volunteers, and it is that widening circle of committed people, more than any single tournament, that secures a sport's future.

The UK-UAE Axis

The second strand of the road ahead is international. Holding the IFA7 vice presidency for both the UK and UAE creates a natural bridge between two football cultures that complement each other. The UK contributes depth of playing talent, coaching tradition, and league organisation. The UAE contributes world-class facilities, event-hosting capability, and an appetite for innovative sporting formats that has made it a global hub for new competitions. The opportunity is to knit these strengths together: exhibition events, bilateral tournaments, and eventually a rhythm of cross-border competition that gives players in both countries international experience within the format.

This work also sits naturally alongside the broader UK-UAE relationship in trade, culture, and investment that Asad Shamim engages with through his advisory roles. Sport has always been one of diplomacy's most effective instruments, and football, in any format, opens doors that formal channels sometimes cannot.

Building Institutions That Last

The third priority is institutional. Young sports formats live or die by their governance: clear rules, credible officiating, player welfare standards, and financial sustainability. Part of the vice presidency's work is unglamorous but essential: helping IFA7 build the administrative machinery that allows the format to scale without losing integrity. That includes attracting sponsors and partners who share a long-term vision, developing pathways for coaches and referees, and ensuring that competition calendars serve players rather than exhaust them.

Commercial development matters here too, approached with discipline. The format's growth will attract commercial interest, and the task is to channel that interest into infrastructure, prize structures, and grassroots reinvestment rather than short-term extraction. Asad Shamim's entrepreneurial background gives him a practical eye for which partnerships build lasting value and which merely borrow it.

The Measure of Success

What does success look like several seasons from now? More organised seven-a-side leagues in more UK cities. Regular international fixtures connecting the UK and UAE. A generation of players who found their competitive home in the format. And an association whose governance is strong enough to carry the sport's growth. Those are the markers that matter. Readers can follow developments through the news section, view moments from recent sporting engagements in the gallery, or reach out directly via the contact page. The invitation extends especially to community organisers, sponsors, and local authorities who see what small-sided football can do for participation in their own areas, because the next chapter of this story will be written as much by them as by anyone holding a title.