Sirayah Shiraz
Story:
Sirayah started as an EDI expert, working with sporting institutions to increase inclusivity and diversity as she saw the lack of it. This is when she started creating opportunities for multicultural youth across the UK by working with club foundations to offer paid education. Over her career, she has helped 750 under 25 secure football and finance jobs. Not only does she work hard for on-the-pitch and off-the-pitch representation, Sirayah is also now bringing it to the screen. In front of the camera, she represents a unique standpoint of a biracial woman within sports and is intelligent, knowledgeable, and authentically engaging. With the mix of her career background, she has become a well-rounded sports content creator and focuses on making uncomfortable conversations comfortable. She creates massive pathways for herself and uses all of these projects to enrich other young people's work experience and show them it is possible. She is well-rounded and varied in presenting and makes watching football, tennis, or F1 content interesting to people who aren't sports fans or fanatics. Sirayah is the embodiment of passion and does not do this work for the accolade but for real fundamental change and the love of the game.
Reason for nomination:
Sirayah's entire life and career have been devoted to creating a more inclusive and enriching game on and off the pitch. From creating programs for underrepresented young people across the country or from her journalism aspect of telling beautiful, educational stories that can be relatable to football fans across the world. It's inspiring to me what she has achieved and how many lives she has impacted in her short career. Her sports podcast show 'The Shiraz Segment' dives into unspoken topics regarding sports, society, and style, whilst simultaneously giving an insight into her being middle eastern, Caribbean and African but raised British. Sirayah empowers and provides opportunity for others and by just existing from a representation aspect shows it is possible for biracial and Black women within sports across the world to exist and thrive and furthermore that their stories are valid, respected, and interesting to tell. For me, I would not be in a position within football without Sirayah, and many others can say the same. I am excited to see over her long career the massive game-changing initiatives and journalism Sirayah can implement and touch people's hearts with. In a day and age where a lot of great people get overlooked, this type of recognition has her name all over it. Thank you Sirayah, you deserve to be seen.
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