Bengal United

THE STORY OF BRITISH BANGLADESHI FOOTBALL IN TOWER HAMLETS

Bengal United: The Story of British Bangladeshi Football in Tower Hamlets is a year-long Swadhinata Trust project (June 2026 – June 2027), supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, documenting the development of football within the local Bangladeshi community from the arrival of large numbers of Bangladeshis in the East End in the 1970s to the present day.

The project grew out of the recognition that the history of organised Bangladeshi football in Tower Hamlets has never been properly documented. Some of those involved in the earliest teams are now elderly or have sadly passed away, while photographs, old team kits, flyers and other material recording this history remain in private collections and are at risk of being lost.

Bengal United will train young volunteers in local-history research, archiving and oral-history interviewing, enabling them to help identify and record the stories of players, coaches, managers, organisers, families and others involved in the development of the game. Their personal stories will also reveal how football became entwined with the wider social history of the East End.

Early Bengali football teams were closely connected to youth organisations that became involved in the borough’s anti-racist movement during the 1970s. As clubs became more established and began competing beyond the community, football helped break down barriers between Bengali and non-Bengali communities, opened pathways into senior and semi-professional football, broadened horizons through tours abroad and, more recently, has helped reconnect younger British Bangladeshis with their ancestral roots through competitions such as the Upazila Cups.

Bengal United was publicly launched at the Greater Sylhet Upazila Cup on Sunday 30 August 2026.

PROJECT OUTPUTS

By June 2027, Bengal United will produce three major public resources:

• Free online resource 
• Free Educational publication 
• Touring exhibition 

In addition, the oral histories and selected digitised material collected by the project will be permanently preserved and made publicly accessible through Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives.

The project is being delivered with support from organisations including Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives, Queen Mary University of London, Four Corners and the Oral History Society, bringing together expertise in archives, research, oral history, community heritage and public engagement.