Discrimination in football must stop now

English football has a shocking level of institutional discrimination, according to a report from The Sports People’s Think Tank (SPTT), commissioned by a group of former Premier League players.

The findings show that only 19 of the 552 senior coaching positions, or 3.4 per cent, at England's 92 league clubs are held by people from BME backgrounds, despite 25 per cent of professional players in the Football League coming from black or minority ethnic backgrounds. The report also reveals that less than one per cent of all senior governance and senior administration positions at governing bodies and professional clubs in England are held by staff from BME communities.

It believes the low numbers of coaches from minority backgrounds completing UEFA coaching qualifications is due to a perceived lack of opportunity.
Michael Johnson, the former Birmingham City player, highlights the situation. He has a full set of coaching badges, including the highest award of the UEFA Pro Licence, a prerequisite for anyone wanting to manage in the Premier League...and has received just three invites to attend interviews for coaching and manager jobs in the past three years.

I don't want anyone to do me a favour,"

he says.

I've gone out and done it the hard way. I've paid my way through the qualifications. All I want is that opportunity, just like any other man from any other walk of life."

Report-funders FARE singled out the English game for its tendency to operate an 'insider' recruitment network, where coaches are selected by their personal connections rather than qualifications.

This is a terrible scandal and it can't continue, for as Jason Roberts, 36, wrote in the report:

[English] football has lost successive generations of potential coaches and managers simply because they are black or from other ethnic minority backgrounds...an urgent, honest and thorough debate is required before English football can heal itself and redress the balance."

Sports Minister Helen Grant must act now...how football is governed is central to her portfolio.

As a start she should insist that all professional football clubs introduce a version of the NFL's Rooney Rule so that at least one BME candidate is interviewed for a senior coaching or managerial position.

The report shows that English football is still a bastion of hidden racism, where who you know is more important than your ability to do the job, and your ability to do the job is overlooked if you happen to be Black. For this to be the case in a sport in which Black players have added so much following generations of ugly discrimination on and off the pitch, and in the changing rooms is a national disgrace which shames those who run the 'beautiful game'.

Paul Hensby