My name is Azmat Khan and I am the Community Cohesion Officer for Rochdale AFC. I have been in post since June 2006 and have had some great success in working in local schools and also networking with the local community centres.

My job is to help develop football within our communities and also promote Rochdale AFC to the wider community. My main focus is working in the socially deprived areas of Rochdale and BME communities.

The ultimate plan would be to get a player from the Asian or BME community in to playing for Rochdale. That would be a tremendous achievement and I am constantly looking for talent. We have had two trialists so far, under 11s but I know there is a lot more talent out there. With the right guidance and ability and ultimately the parental support I am sure we can achieve this.

I have offered free coaching in schools and progressed them into playing in tournaments and building bridges with the schools. Similarly in communities were there are 2 satellite sessions setup on a Saturday which has over 60 kids in attendance. It is really rewarding to see so many kids having an opportunity to participate in a structured coaching session.

Now that we have a little more light in the evening I am looking forward to get a mini 5-aside league up and running. I have had great response from teams from all over Rochdale who are ready to test there skills. The league will be run for 12 weeks initially with a tournament at the end of it.