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50 Years of Rising Stars FC — Nikki Laine interviews Ayoob Moolla

A group of young boys come to the UK in the Summer of 1966. They go to the park at the weekends to play cricket but their heads are turned by the nationwide obsession with football.
50 Years of Rising Stars FC — Nikki Laine interviews Ayoob Moolla
Portrait of Ayoub Moolla by Isabel Lussana, ©Unreflected Reflections

Podcast interview by Nikki Laine | Amplify Stroud
December 2025

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Nikki Laine interviews Ayoob "Ginge" Moolla about Rising Stars FC after 50 years of growth of the club.

A group of young boys immigrate to the UK in the Summer of 1966. They come to the park to play cricket but their heads are turned by the nationwide obsession with football.

The boys save up to buy a football and start playing in the park — 25-a-side, they have dreams of starting a club and joining the Sunday League.

Fifty years later Rising Stars FC takes the county championship.

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Rising Stars and other films from Unreflected Reflections are being shown around Gloucestershire and the rest of the UK.

The next screening is at Forest Green Rovers Football Club on Thursday 11 December, shown in partnership with Stroud Film Festival and Forest Green Rovers.

Tickets are available from here

Unreflected Reflections - Rising Stars FC’ 74 — Stroud Film Festival

Amplify Stroud is supported by Dialect rural writers collective. Dialect offers mentorship, encouragement and self-study courses as well as publishing.

You can find out more at https://www.dialect.org.uk/