BOLTON WANDERERS FOOTBALL CLUB'S Community Cohesion Officer, Abdul Basit, has won the Beautiful Game Accolade at the annual GG2 Leadership & Diversity Awards held at the palacious Grosvenor House Hotel in London on Monday.

Abdul, who is the only Community Cohesion Officer in the Premier League, beat off stiff competition to win the prestigious honour in the category that awards a person, project or organisation, which has done the most to promote diversity on or off the football pitch. The award, sponsored by the Barclays Premier League, was presented by the Prime Minister's wife Sarah Brown, the Chief Executive of the Premier League Richard Scudamore and BBC Sport's presenter Manish Bhasin.

"This is a great honour and achievement for all the hard work everyone is doing at the Wanderers to promote diversity through the Club's successful Unity in Diversity initiative," said 31-year-old Abdul on collecting his award.

"The initiative is still in its infancy and in just ten months we have achieved many great things. We are making progress on a daily basis through the Football in the Community programme and it is fantastic for me and the staff to be recognised on a national level by winning this magnificent award.

"There is still a lot of work to be done to continue our success story and with the support of the town and the football club we can make massive strides to bring unity and harmony to one of the country's most vibrant areas."

The ninth GG2 Leadership & Diversity Awards is the premier event of its kind, attracting a diverse and powerful audience of high achievers. The event recognises talent within all ethnic minority communities within the UK.