Experience

Majid Lavji began organising a series of regional football tournaments across the UK with the aim of highlighting Asian participation and talent within the game.

At the time, British Asian communities had a strong passion for football and significant participation at grassroots level, but that presence was far less visible within the professional game and established football structures.

Majid saw an opportunity to use organised tournaments to bring players, teams, communities and people from within football together, while creating a platform on which Asian football talent could be seen and celebrated.

The tournaments were about more than simply playing matches. They were designed to increase visibility, create opportunities and encourage greater engagement between Asian football communities and the wider game.

What began as a number of regional football events would become the foundation for a much larger project.

Over the following years, the concept developed into the AsiaEurope Football Festival, expanding Majid's work into national events, football development, academies and ultimately the wider professional football industry.

1999 marked the beginning of Majid Lavji's journey in football — built around opportunity, inclusion and a belief that football could bring different communities together.

After several years of regional tournaments, Majid Lavji took the AsiaEurope Football Festival to the next level in 2003, developing it into a national football festival designed to showcase Asian and ethnic-minority participation and talent within the UK game.

The first national event was hosted in Liverpool with the support of Liverpool City Council, which recognised the potential of the initiative and the importance of creating greater opportunities and visibility for communities that remained significantly underrepresented within professional football.

The festival attracted around 100 teams from across the UK and brought players together with coaches, scouts and representatives from the wider football industry. It gained support from major football organisations, including The Football Association and the Professional Footballers' Association, alongside Premier League clubs and talent scouts. The wider initiative also received backing from football, public-sector and government-related organisations as its profile continued to grow.

For Majid, the 2003 festival represented a major step forward. What had started as regional tournaments was now becoming a nationally recognised football platform, connecting grassroots players with the professional game while raising awareness of the considerable football talent within Britain's Asian communities.

The success of Liverpool helped establish AsiaEurope as a much broader football organisation and created the foundations for the academy, international development and professional football projects that followed.

Working with Liverpool Hope University, Majid co-created the AsiaEurope Liverpool Hope Football Academy.

The project brought football coaching and education together and focused particularly on widening opportunities within the game.

This represented an early example of Majid moving from football events into longer-term player and educational development.

Following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Tsunami Soccer Aid organised a major fundraising football event at Anfield.

Majid was involved through AsiaEurope and served as a trustee connected with the fundraising initiative.

The game brought together Liverpool legends and celebrities and demonstrated how football could be used to mobilise support around an international humanitarian cause.

As the AsiaEurope Football Festival continued to grow, the project evolved into OneCulture — a broader concept designed to bring people from every background together through football.

The change reflected the natural development of the original idea. AsiaEurope had initially been created to highlight Asian participation in football and provide greater visibility for communities that were underrepresented within the game. As the tournaments expanded, Majid Lavji recognised that the next stage was not simply about highlighting individual communities, but about creating an environment where different cultures could compete, participate and engage together on equal terms.

OneCulture was built around a simple philosophy: football belongs to everyone.

The programme brought together teams, players and communities from different ethnic, cultural and social backgrounds, using football as a common language. The emphasis shifted from representation alone towards integration, participation and shared experience.

The concept retained the values that had shaped AsiaEurope from the beginning — opportunity, inclusion and access — while creating a wider identity that could appeal to everyone.

For Majid, OneCulture represented an important evolution in his work. What had started as an initiative to increase the visibility of Asian football had developed into a broader platform demonstrating how sport could help break down cultural barriers and create stronger connections between communities.

The philosophy behind OneCulture would continue to influence many of Majid's later football and international projects.

Different backgrounds. Different cultures. One game. OneCulture.

As Majid's work became increasingly connected to professional football, AsiaEurope Football Consultancy was established.

The consultancy provided services to football organisations, governing bodies, players and other participants within the industry.

This was an important transition in Majid's career from football-development projects into professional football business.

In 2007, Majid Lavji and AsiaEurope Football launched the Live The Dream programme, an initiative created to help players born and raised in the UK and Europe explore opportunities to represent the country of their family heritage.

The concept recognised that a growing number of talented young footballers from Asian and African backgrounds were developing within the British and European football systems but could also have international eligibility through their parents or grandparents.

Live The Dream was designed to help create that bridge.

The first programme was held in Rotherham in 2007, working alongside Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council and the Pakistan Football Federation. It provided players of Pakistani heritage with the opportunity to be seen within a structured football environment and to demonstrate their ability to representatives connected with the Pakistan national football setup.

Following the initial programme, the concept was expanded and trials and player-identification opportunities were organised in connection with Bangladesh, India and a number of African national football organisations, helping players based in the UK and Europe explore international opportunities through their family heritage.

The programme created a practical link between diaspora footballers and international federations that might otherwise have struggled to identify eligible players developing outside their domestic football systems.

For Majid, Live The Dream was about more than organising trials. It was about recognising the increasingly international nature of football and creating genuine pathways between British and European-developed players and their countries of heritage.

The initiative also demonstrated AsiaEurope Football's growing ability to bring together local authorities, international football federations, players, coaches and football professionals across different countries.

Live The Dream became an important part of Majid's international football work and reflected a principle that would continue throughout his career:

Creating opportunities by connecting players, cultures and different parts of the football world.

In 2008, Majid Lavji established the AsiaEurope Football Academy in The Gambia, expanding his football-development work beyond the UK and into West Africa.

The academy was created to provide young Gambian players with a more structured environment in which to train, develop and compete, while also building stronger links between football in The Gambia and the wider international game.

Majid's approach was focused on long-term development rather than simply identifying individual players. The aim was to create opportunities at grassroots and youth level, work with local coaches and football stakeholders, and provide young players with greater exposure to organised football.

The academy also became a platform for future tournaments, development programmes and international football relationships in the country.

For Majid, the establishment of the AsiaEurope Football Academy represented an important step in his career, giving him direct experience of building and operating an overseas football-development project and creating relationships within an emerging football market.

The work laid the foundations for AsiaEurope's wider involvement in Gambian football and for Majid's subsequent relationship with the country's football authorities.

Majid was appointed European Director of the Gambia Football Association.

His work included sponsorship and commercial activity, international relationships and involvement with the rebranding of the association.

The appointment represented one of the most significant international roles within Majid's football career.

Building on the establishment of the AsiaEurope Football Academy in The Gambia, Majid Lavji expanded the project in 2011 by bringing the AsiaEurope Football Festival concept to the country.

The festival brought together young players, academy teams, local clubs, coaches and football organisations, creating a competitive football environment while providing opportunities for young Gambian players to participate, develop and showcase their ability.

The project took the philosophy behind the original AsiaEurope Football Festivals — using football to create opportunity and bring people together — and adapted it to the local football community in West Africa.

For Majid, the festival was also about building sustainable relationships rather than simply staging a one-off tournament. Working alongside local football stakeholders helped strengthen AsiaEurope's presence in The Gambia and develop deeper connections across youth football, academies and the country's wider football structure.

By this stage, AsiaEurope had evolved from organising football tournaments in the UK into an organisation capable of establishing academies and delivering football-development programmes internationally, with activity spanning Europe and Africa.

The work in The Gambia would become an important part of Majid's international football experience and helped strengthen the relationships he developed within Gambian football.

By 2011, Majid Lavji's work had expanded beyond football development and player pathways into the wider role that sport can play within communities.

Through Faith in Football, Majid became increasingly involved in discussions around positive youth development, inclusion, interfaith dialogue and the social responsibility of football organisations.

During this period, Majid regularly participated in football working groups and industry discussions involving The Football Association, alongside relationships with football organisations and associations in the UK, Africa and Asia, including regional football bodies such as WAFU — the West African Football Union.

His work focused on how football could be used not only to develop players, but also to engage young people, bring communities together and encourage dialogue between people from different cultural and religious backgrounds.

The work built naturally on the philosophy that had underpinned AsiaEurope and OneCulture from the beginning: that football has the ability to cross cultural, religious and social boundaries in a way that few other institutions can.

For Majid, Faith in Football represented another development in his career — moving beyond organising tournaments and academies towards contributing to wider conversations about how football organisations can positively influence the communities they represent.

In 2011, Majid Lavji was involved with the Noble Gift Gala, the high-profile international fundraising event held at The Dorchester in London and hosted by HRH Prince Azim of Brunei and Eva Longoria.

The Noble Gift Gala brought together figures from the worlds of business, entertainment, sport and philanthropy to raise funds and awareness for charitable causes supporting children and women internationally.

Drawing on his experience in football, events and celebrity relationships, Majid provided support around the organisation, strategy, marketing and profile of the event, working with those involved to help bring together the right people and resources.

Majid also helped provide sporting personalities for the evening, including former Liverpool and England footballer John Barnes, who was involved with the event as an auctioneer, as well as assisting with marketing support around the gala.

The project added another dimension to Majid's experience, demonstrating his ability to work beyond the traditional football environment and contribute to large-scale charitable events involving international figures, celebrities, commercial partners and philanthropic organisations.

It also built on Majid's previous involvement with charity-based football initiatives and his belief that the profile and relationships created through sport can be used to support wider social causes.

In 2012, Majid Lavji returned to the player-representation side of professional football, building on the relationships and experience he had developed through more than a decade of football projects, academies, international development and work with football associations.

Majid began working directly with professional and aspiring players, advising on career development, contracts, transfers and opportunities within the UK and international football markets.

His previous work across Europe, Asia and Africa gave him a particularly strong understanding of international player pathways and the different challenges facing players moving between countries and football systems.

As football regulations evolved, Majid operated within the football intermediary system, representing and advising players while developing relationships with clubs, scouts, coaches, football associations and other industry professionals.

This period provided Majid with valuable first-hand experience of the transfer market, player contracts, negotiations and the relationship between clubs, players and their representatives — experience that continues to inform his understanding of the football business today.

AsiaEurope Football Consultancy and the sports division of Middleton Solicitors combined their football interests to form The Football Group.

The business brought together football consultancy with a wider range of professional football services.

Majid subsequently continued developing the group following the retirement of co-founder Alan Middleton.

Majid and his team were involved with the creation and development of a former-player initiative associated with Tranmere Rovers.

The project was connected to the legacy of the club's legendary former manager John King.

Majid and The Football Group worked with the Manchester City Former Players Association as it considered its structure and future around the time of its fortieth anniversary.

Support included branding, organisational work and liaison around the creation of an appropriate structure for the association.

The anniversary programme included a special football event at Stockport County's Edgeley Park.

Majid and The Football Group team worked alongside others involved in delivering the event, including marketing and communications activity.

Following the retirement of co-founder Alan Middleton, Majid and his team continued the development and direction of The Football Group.

The Football Group separated its player-agency operation, which was subsequently sold.

This allowed the wider organisation — and Majid personally — to increasingly concentrate on football business, consultancy, education, partnerships and strategic work.

The OneCulture concept continued to evolve around football participation and opportunities for young people.

The Football Group became part of the wider Sports Group structure.

Majid serves as Managing Director of Sports Group.

Majid's next chapter concentrates his previous experience around football organisations rather than individual player representation.

The focus is on club advisory, football business, commercial opportunities, international development and supporting owners and senior executives.