An English football club has been widely praised after opening a multi-faith prayer room for its Muslim fans, thus showing respect to their faith and helping them feel welcome.
The new prayer room, opened inside Bradford City’s home, will replace the current prayer room at Valley Parade.
Opening in a ceremony on February 23, the room has been refurbished in partnership with Regal Foods, which is also a club sponsor.
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“It’s brilliant. It is for every faith. It is available for everybody,” Younis Chaudhry, CEO of Regal Foods, based in Wallis Street, told The Telegraph & Argus.
“This is very important to us. It will be a big thing to the different communities.
“We have contributed towards it. This helps with inclusion. It’s great and not a lot of clubs have something like that. It is really important for people to have something like this.
“We are short sponsors at Bradford City, so the prayer room is the second initiative we have done with the club.”
Chaudhry’s Regal Foods firm also supported a similar facility at Yorkshire County Cricket’s Headingley ground when it opened in 2016.
Everyone Is Welcome
City’s new multi-faith prayer room is larger than the previous facility, thus allowing people of all faiths to perform their prayer during match day.
“We want people to feel welcome here,” Ryan Sparks, Bradford City chief executive, said.
“Bradford is a very diverse and multi-cultural city and we have to represent that.
“We want a stadium full of Bradfordians from all walks of life. That’s what Bradford is all about. It’s a welcoming city.”
Muslims pray five times a day, with each prayer made up of a series of postures and movements, each set of which is called a rak‘ah.
The five prayer times are divided all through the day which starts with Fajr prayer at dawn.
Bradford City is not the first English club to dedicate a prayer room it its fans.
Last August, Blackburn Rovers opened a special prayer room for Muslim fans attending the games in stadium.
Also in August another club, Queens Park Rangers, was widely praised for providing prayer mats for its Muslim players and staff.