THE ASIAN INDEPENDENT UK
COOKSY NIJJAR’s GSA FOOTBALL CLUB KFF BIRMINGHAM SHAHEEDI TOURNAMENT 2026 PREMIER DIVISION CHAMPIONS
32 SENIOR 47 JUNIOR 9 GIRLS TEAMS PARTICIPATE IN WELL ATTENDED AND ENJOYED BY THOUSANDS
ਸ਼ਹੀਦੋਂ ਕੀ ਚਿਤਾੳਂ ਪਰ ਲਗੇਂਗੇ ਹਰ ਬਰਸ ਮੇਲੇ,
ਵਤਨ ਪਰ ਮਰਨੇ ਵਾਲੋਂ ਕਾ ਯਹੀ ਬਾਨੀ ਨਿਸ਼ਾਂ ਹੋਗਾ।
The annual Birmingham Shaheedi Tournament which started about four decades ago, was organised by Khalsa Football Federation KFF and Birmingham Khalsa Football Federation BKFF, supported by local Gurdwaras and businesses. It was played at Aston University Grounds, Birmingham Road, Walsall, West Midlands on 6th and 7th June 2026. On a good football playing weekend weather the tournament was very successful in which thousands of football loving fans enjoyed the great entertainment provided by total of 88 teams from cities such as Milton Keynes, Leicester, Coventry, Derby, Slough, Southall, Walsall, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Bradford, Nuneaton, Nottingham etc.
SENIOR FOOTBALL
Senior football matches in the premier, division 1, Over 35s Vets and Over 45sVets divisions started on Saturday 6th June with the finals of these divisions held on Sunday 7th June. In the Vets Over45s Section Wondervaults, Khalsa Leicester, FC Punjab Sandwell, Singh Sabha Slough, Punjab United Derby,and Warley stars competed in which Wondervaults were Champions of Over $5s Vets and Punjab United Derby were Runners Up. In the vets Over 35s Punjab United Sports Wolverhampton were given a Bye in the quarter FinalIn the other Quarter Finals Shere Punjab RRG FC beat guru Ravidas, London Punjab FC beat Khalsa Leicester, and Wondervaults FC scored 11 goals past Punjab United Derby. In the finalon Pitch 1, Punjab United Sports Wolverhampton became Champions of Vets Over 45s by beating Wondervaults FC who were Runners Ups.
Division 1
The most competitive section of the KFF Senior football is Division 1 nowadays which had total of 11 teams taking part. Milton Keynes, Queens Park Bradford, Hayes End Athletic, Singh Sabha Slough/Hounslow, GSA Res were lucky to get Bye into next round. GNG Leicester Res. Were beaten 5-2 by Sikh hunters FC Singh Bros. Derby Res. Convingly beat BNSS by 6-0, and Khalsa Leicester lost 2-4 to Singh Sabha Barking. In the high scoring first semi final played on pitch 2 Milton Keynes and hayes End Athletic scored four goals each at he end of the match. In the penalty shoot-out Milton Keynes ran out 8-7 winners to reach the final. GSA Res. were beaten 2-0 by Singh Bros. Derby Res. P itch 1 staged the final between Singh Brothers Derby Res. Were worthy winners scoring 7 goals past Milton Keynes without reply. Champions Division 1 KFF Birmingham 2026 Singh Brothers Derby Res. scored a total of 19 goals. Only Singh Sasbha Barking scored the one goal against the strong defence of the East Midlanders.
Premier Division
The best teams play high level football in this section. It is sad and shame that there were only six teams taking part. Southall and GNG Leicester got a Bye into the semi final where they played each otherwith east Midlanders beating London side 5-2 to reach the final. The winners of the Walsall Tournament Singh Sabha Slough/Hounslow were thrashed 8-2 by GSA FC. Similarly, FC Khalsa Leicester scored 7 past Guru Ravidas who scored once . In a hard fought very competitive semi final between GSA and Khalsa Leicester GSA progressed to their second final of 2026 by winning 2-1. The Premier final is always the last match of the tournament and watched by large number of supporters. Scoring a total of 12 goals in their matches they beat GNG Leicester by 2-1. At the final whistle which was eagerly awaited by GSA FC, the players staff and supporters of GSA were cuddling each other and dancing around jumping up and down. COOKSY NIJJAR’S GSA FOOTBALL CLUB WERE WORTHY CHAMPIONS PREMIER DIVISION KFF BIRMINGHAM 2026
GSA Manager commented “It was a tough weekend all round, especially the semi final and final against two teams from Leicester. The quality of the top 3 teams is extremely huge with a good level of competition.
Fortunately, for us our new faces have integrated well and this weekend we were able to do enough to win the ‘A’ SECTION”. Cuba Mitchel was delighted to win the coveted
“ PLAYER OF THE TOURNAMENT AWARD”.
Junior football
The scene for this section of the tournament is always very spectacularly colourful as it is wholly family atmosphere with age range from one year in prams to 85 years with walking sticks. Grandparents, parents, relatives, friends and neighbours of the 32 junior teams had come to see their related young superstars perform so they can achieve their goals of winning/ taking part in the tournament. Nearly every club bring their own tents and chairs and loads of drinking water bottles to keep de-hydrated. Each age group had ten teams divided into group a and B with five teams in each group.
Instead of Knock-out matches in the Senior Section, the matches in the Junior Section are played like in a league style with each team playing each other. In this way each of the Junior teams get the chance to play a minimum of four games. The top two teams in each group qualify for the semi-finals. The losing semi-finalists play each other to decide who gets 3rd Place in each age group. The results of WINNERS, RUNNERS-UP and 3RD PLACE were as follows:
Of the 32 teams that took part, 11 different clubs took the 15 Trophies which were being competed for. A big thank you to all the players, coaches, supporters, families, friends, relatives and neighbours, referees and the organisers KFF and BKFF for putting a fantastic tournament together.
On behalf of the organisers Khalsa Football Federation KFF representative Rashpal Singh commenting on the tournament said “ Once again the tournament was excellently organised by BKFF and sponsored by local Gurdwaras. Special mention must go to Pele who worked tirelessly throughout the weekend to ensure that everything ran smoothly. An Over 55s Exhibition match was also held between players from the North and South”.
FUTURE FOOTBALL DEVELOPMENT FOR THE SIKH COMMUNITY IN UK
By religions sikhs are top of the League in Homeownership in the UK. We have almost 500 Gurdwara sahibs for the morethan 500 00 Sikhs that provide free vegetable food to everyone that comes inside the Gurdwara Sahib. There are successful well run Sikh football clubs that have senior, Junior and Girls football teams as the KFF summer tournaments prove every year.
BUT WHY OH WHY DO WE KEEP ON WASTING OUR HARD-EARNED MONEY ON RENTING THE GROUNDS FOR THE SUMMER TOURNAMENTS. As an approximate guess, if the cost of staging one tournament is £10,000 then it costs us £40,000 per year which is likely to cost £0.5 million for ten years due to rises in cost of living etc.
I personally think it would be a good idea to have our own grounds somewhere in the Midlands so that clubs can participate from South, North, East and West. These grounds can be utilised 365 days of the year. In time a state of the arts SIKH COMMUNITY STADIUM can be developed. We should be very proud that SEERET KAUR BINNING from the Sikh Community is the England Girls Under 16s Captain. This has happened without our own stadium. Just imagine what can be achieved. We could organise matches against teams from Punjab, India, Islamabad Pakistan, Toronto Canada, San Francisco USA, Paris France, Melbourne Australia etc as well play matches in those countries.
We should NEVER EVER DOUBT THE EXTREME POWER OF THE SIKH ARDAS which we request our supporting Gurdwara Sahib’s Granthi Singh to do before we start this new project which will also create a large number of jobs. I am a pensioner and willing to contribute £101 towards the SIKH COMMUNITY’S OWN FOOTBALL GROUNDS. We just need to do Ardas and start the project, Waheguru Ji SABH KARAJ APPAY HEE KIRPA KRKAY POORAY KRNGAY. Finally one of the stands in the stadium should be named THE COOKSY NIJJAR GSA FOOTBALL CLUB STAND.
