Seven days before Patrick Vieira was sacked by Crystal Palace, the 46-year-old was asked if he saw himself as a role model for other black coaches. As the solitary minority manager in the Premier League, and just the tenth in three decades, the former Arsenal midfielder said “if I manage to inspire I’m really proud and happy.”
That same week Jermain Defoe, with more than 300 club goals and 57 England caps, launched a podcast in which he will delve into his path towards coaching, while the Black Footballers’ Partnership (BFP) released a report detailing that representation levels in off-field roles remains “remarkably low.”
The numbers presented are damning, pointing to a bottleneck that the authorities’ commitment to widening is somewhere between questionable and barely existent.
While 43 per cent of Premier League players and 34 per cent of EFL players are black, only 4.4 per cent of those in coaching jobs are. The ratio shrinks to an alarming 1.6 per cent when it comes to executive and ownership roles.
With Vieira parting ways, there are now just six black or biracial managers or head coaches across the 92 league clubs.
“The data doesn’t lie,” says Delroy Corinaldi, one of BFP’s co-founders. “This is the fallacy of it all. The idea the game perpetuates that black coaches are not job ready is in the spotlight. They are ready, they have the qualifications. They are as good as their counterparts but there’s not enough engagement to explain what’s stopping them from getting the jobs.”
The absence of role models is dissuading some black players from pursuing a coaching career but a sliding scale is in operation. According to the BFP report, of those who earned their coaching badges between 2004 and 2020 about 23 per cent were black but minorities account for only 14 percent of pro licence holders.
“In terms of action, not much has been done,” says fellow BFP founder Eartha Pond, an independent director on the FA’s Women’s Football Board who played for Arsenal and Chelsea among others during a distinguished playing career. “There’s a system and way of doing things that’s been embedded for a while.”
The numbers in the Premier League are concerning but BFP report shows it is even more alarming lower down the pyramid. Only three of 68 new off-field roles in League Two went to black employees and Corinaldi says that “the bottom rung of the ladder is being pulled up.”
Looking at the breakdown of roles raises further red flags. There is not a single black head of scouting or chief scout. There is one sporting director and one goalkeeping coach. And more than a quarter of loan managers are black.
It is an extension of a grimly common trend of occupational segregation that permeates many sports called “stacking.” Historically Hispanic baseball players have been used at second base or shortstop but catchers remain predominantly white.
There have been fewer black quarterbacks in American football than in other positions, with a similarly obstructed path for players to progress to coaching roles in the NFL.
Twenty years ago the Rooney Rule was established to increase representation but whether it has been a success is endlessly debated. The numbers point to an increase in minority head coaches but it is still far below the percentage of players, while there is a clear trend towards giving black coaches defensive rather than offensive roles.
Football has had a stacking issue of its own on the pitch: there remains a disproportionate number of black goalkeepers. When Edouard Mendy signed for Chelsea in 2020, he became the Premier League’s only first-choice black No1 and spoke in similar terms to Vieira around seeking to inspire. Yet he was unable to specify reasons why - even if others, such as Inter Milan’s Andre Onana, have been more vocal about the issue in the past.
So what are the solutions?
“There needs to be a new conversation,” Corinaldi says. “We need to get around the table with clubs. There are a host of current ex players talking about finding a path but so far we’re not seeing evidence of the game taking the concerns of black players seriously.”
Pond adds: “A hybrid of the Rooney Rule would help. We want the right people for the job, there are people who are competent enough who have done the badges but don’t get the opportunities.”
Later this week Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink will sit in the England dugout for the first time since replacing Chris Powell as one of Gareth Southgate’s assistant coaches. In October 2018 the FA introduced an initiative where every England team must have at least one black or minority coach. Its intention is well meaning but four and half years on it has not provided the inspiration mentioned by Vieira.
The change must be systematic before another generation of players are lost by a game where required change is often glacial. Yet the BFP says that while the Premier League made contact following the publication of their report to discuss what can be done, there has been a “deafening silence” from the FA.
Pond believes that there is a responsibility for all stakeholders to take a seat at the table but the BFP report questions the data published in the FA’s latest Football Leadership Diversity Code update, released last October, which said targets are being exceeded.
The code was introduced in October 2020 but remains voluntary. Introducing mandatory targets is one solution the BFP thinks could work but must not be seen as a solitary fix.
“Definitely but not as a standalone,” Pond says. “It would be a firm start but there’s a narrative playing into it. There needs to be accountability that we’re moving the dial forward.
“There’s always more that can be done. The more we’re open to conversations to finding solutions, the closer we get to where we want to be. We need to work alongside the right stakeholders to achieve that.”
Defoe, meanwhile, describes the absence of black men in dugouts as “shocking” and “quite sad.” He is working in Tottenham ’s academy, has the required qualifications and an impressive playing career to take lessons from.
In an interview with ITV he said that he “does not want to become disheartened” but so many of his white contemporaries in the England teams of the past decade have already been given plum jobs and, largely, failed in management.
