Kent Equality Countdown Day 20

Guru Nanak Gravesend (GNG) Football Club have gained an excellent reputation as ambassadors for Gravesham and Kent, having played and won major honour

GNG currently run 13 youth teams from the ages of U7's to U18's plus a soccer school for U6's. They have also developed and maintained 3 Senior teams.  The first team compete on a Saturday in the Kent County League Premier Division, there is a Reserve team and the Sunday team that plays in the North Kent Sunday League top flight.

Guru Nanak Gravesend FC have come so far in the 50 years since the club was formed by a dozen or so Punjabi students. No club is a club without a history and GNG are certainly a club with history.

The club was formed in 1965 by a group of Indian boys that were kicking around a ball in the local parks as part of unorganised football. The lads wanted to become a team and play in the local leagues like all their English friends were at school. Not having a pitch, kit and a manager did not help. In the 60's there was also a racial problem which did not help with applications to the league. That racism certainly does not exist anymore today.

Finally in the late 60's The Gravesend Football League accepted the GNG application.   Amrik Sall and Jarnail Bains (Jelo) were the main front men for the club and their first coach was a teacher (Mr Gool) of Colyer Road School.  He used to train the group in the Colyer Road Gym Hall after school.  The first Guru's team was made up of students only.

In those early days GNG had to put up with a lot of racism in the League but soon they started to win everyone's respect not only in Gravesend but in the whole country. Guru Nanak Gravesend FC were the first Team to start running Asian Tournaments with proper rules in the early 1970's. They invited teams from all over the country. Other towns then started running their own tournaments too.

This year the club celebrated their 50th Birthday.  In celebration of this they held numerous events including a 3 day Akhand Path at our patron sponsors £15M+ Gurdwara, an exclusive 50th Birthday Dinner & Dance at the extraordinary venue “The Brewery” in London, a Veterans Tournament (that also featured The Sun FC) for Charity and a Veterans game v Greenways FC whom were also celebrating their 50th year of formation.

The club’s website has the strap line “United by one religion – Football” and that shows how committed they are to their community work.

GNG were featured on BBC News last week please click here to see the interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQC0_qs7GhA

For more information on Guru Nanak Gravesend FC please click here http://gurunanakfc.co.uk/

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