Adam Karim guides Canaries FC to Asian Community Cup win at Stamford Bridge
Another tense Asian Community Cup Final unfolded into a seven-goal thriller at our west London home yesterday afternoon.
The match pitted Preston's Canaries against Punjabi United from Wolverhampton, a side who recently brought several players to Chelsea's Asian Soccer Star, with the Canaries sealing a 4-3 win with only minutes left to play.
The match took place at Stamford Bridge under the watchful eyes of Minister for Sport Gerry Sutcliffe, who saw the canaries captained by Adam Karim build a 3-1 lead at half time.
Punjabi United pulled back the two-goal deficit in the second half with some impressive football rallying the side, but the Canaries managed to secure the win with a header in the dying minutes.
'It was good quality football and very emotional, everybody was up for the fantastic event,' said Sutcliffe.
'There was a lot of effort from people behind the scenes as well, we're delighted Chelsea gave the Asian community the opportunity to play here again and it continues the good community work Chelsea have been doing for a long time.'
This was the sixth successive year Stamford Bridge has hosted the Asian Community Cup, which helps motivate clubs with the promise of a final inside our west London home.
Mesba Ahmed from the London Tigers, who organised the event, knows better than anyone the influence Chelsea's inclusion brings: 'The standard of clubs have gone up over recent years, more discipline has come in and you have teams who are preparing a lot earlier for the tournament, everyone is taking it seriously.
'The Asian Community Cup gives a lot of motivation and we don't allow teams to enter unless they have a youth structure, so the system is in place and the whole idea is to strengthen clubs.'
Chief executive officer of the Premier League, Richard Scudamore, was also in attendance at the game: 'It was an excellent game, very competitive and a really decent standard of football.
'All these things are good, but in terms of Chelsea and what they have done for the Asian Community over recent years is fantastic.
'In allowing such finals as this to be held at Stamford Bridge just shows the dedication Chelsea have to the community, it all results in games like this, which was great to watch.'
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