The FSA generally tries to avoid fanning the flames on culture war stories as, to be honest, we have a lot of stuff to get on with. Spending our time arguing with columnists whose main interest is driving clicks to their websites is usually a waste of time and energy.

Occasionally, though, we have to speak up when football supporters end up unfairly finding themselves in the crosshairs of a news organisation.

And today we find ourselves in that position as The Daily Telegraph has suddenly decided that Muslim supporter groups shouldn’t exist after they had the temerity to criticise the club’s co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

“Why do Man Utd have a Muslim supporters’ club?” asks Telegraph journalist Michael Deacon. “Because I simply can’t see a link between football and any given religion.”

A quick search would tell him that some of our biggest clubs were founded by religious groups, the FA’s most famous patron is also the next head of the Church of England, and the Pope can’t get enough of football (he might call it soccer though).

More seriously, the FSA has many Muslim supporters’ groups as members, and they often do great work in their communities. They are open to anyone to join from that club’s fanbase.

The reason these groups often exist is to encourage fellow Muslim football fans that football IS a welcome place for them, where they can enjoy the game they love, and they will be welcome. They can integrate into our great football stadiums.

This isn’t a theoretical concept or a throwaway media comment piece for them. It’s real life.

Why such groups are needed

Many young Muslim fans have grown up in the suburbs and inner cities around stadiums. They love football but they heard horror stories from their parents and grandparents about racism aimed at them by crowds in the 70s and 80s.

So of course there’d be a fear factor around going to football and maybe a new supporters’ group which mirrored their own identity might be appealing and get new fans into football. And you know what? It works!

Anwar Uddin who helped set up the Fans for Diversity campaign – and now works for the FA – is an ex-pro of Bangladeshi heritage and he spoke of his experience playing at Valley Parade.

Anwar says: “It always amazed me, the drive in towards the stadium… you could see a predominantly Asian area, a predominantly Asian community; stepping into the stadium, warming up… there wasn’t any Asian representation in the terraces.”

Anwar then helped establish Bangla Bantams in 2015 to “give the community the confidence to be able to integrate with football fans, to get into the stadiums.”

That work has continued at Bangla Bantams and many other trailblazing groups encouraging thousands of new fans at loads of different clubs to get along to the match. And Bangla Bantams continue to bring new supporters to football all these years later.

This work actually helps integrate communities and build understanding, something we thought the Telegraph might welcome. It does after all claim it is “committed to diversity, inclusion and belonging” via its own in-house programme.

So diversity is apparently good at the Telegraph as long as you don’t use the words “Muslim supporters’ group”. That is not a stance with which our members – Muslim or not – will ever agree.

Fans for Diversity is at the core of what we do.

• Apologies to all of the fan groups doing great work around the country who we didn’t get the chance to namecheck in this piece. Interested readers can check out the best of that work in our Fans for Diversity – 10 Years On publication and the Fans for Diversity campaign.