Stormzy has announced he is launching a football programme with Adidas for young people of black heritage to enhance and protect diverse representation in the sports industry.
Merky FC aims to affect change by addressing the lack of diversity off the pitch and providing access to multi-year, paid professional placements.
The collaboration also brings together 10 leading brands including Manchester United, Fulham and Sky Sports to form part of the careers programme that will commence in January 2023. The launch of Merky FC was announced early on Thursday morning, with the rapper joined by Arsenal legend Ian Wright and Brighton defender Victoria Williams to discuss their own experiences in English football.
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And speaking during the launch, the former Gunners striker labelled the amount of black people within management and backroom staff as "embarrassing", using former QPR boss Chris Ramsey as an example and highlighting the barriers black people still face in the modern game.
"You have got someone like Chris Ramsey at QPR, he is the most qualified coach of anyone, he has got everything. He was with QPR for ages, he was with England for ages, but he still can't get past a certain level to be a manager.
"I don't know what the barriers are, but the barriers are there. There are people that can break down those barriers, and those are the people you want to be talking to.
"Everybody should be looking at the disparity in respects of the managers to players and continue to answer the question. It's embarrassing and they just carry on with it."
Currently, Patrick Vieira is the only manager of colour managing in the Premier League, with a study by Black Footballers Partnership’s Szymanski stating that 43% of Premier League and 34% of English Football League players are black, but just 4.4% of managers are black.
And Stormzy was keen to add to Wright's statement about the lack of opportunities for black people within football in an interview with Sky Sports saying: "The statistics are shocking. I think it's down to visibility a lot. Even growing up we didn't see any black managers, black people on our screens in the media.
"So I think when Ian Wright comes along, Thierry Henry comes along, we know we can kick ball - we've always known we can kick ball - but in terms of the roles and the other positions in the industry we don't see our representation, and representation is important. When you can't see it, it's not always easy to believe it."
The launch of Merky FC also comes amid the Football Association's second annual report on the Football Leadership Diversity Code which highlighted how English clubs are failing to meet six out of eight pledged targets. It found that a disappointing trend occurred in terms of coaches hired by men's clubs with 15.6 per cent from Black, Asian or mixed heritage background, below the 25 per cent aim
"The Premier League fully supports the Football Leadership Diversity Code as we collectively work to achieve greater diversity across all areas of the game," chief executive Richard Masters said. "Over the past two years, the code has represented an important commitment from across football to tackle inequality and create long-term change."
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