Why is there only One Black Manager in the Premier League?
Currently, there is 1 Black Manager in the English Premier League - Vincent Kompany. This is despite the fact that over 40% of players are of Black or Black Mixed heritage. The Black Footballers Partnership say that the Football Leadership Diversity Code (FLDC) has failed. So, let's look at the obstacles Black professionals face in English Football.
Chris Ramsey and Les Ferdinand are both members of the Black Footballers Partnership
Firstly, who are the Black Footballers Partnership?
Launched in 2022, the Black Footballers Partnership (BFP), in their own words, are “the unique coming together of black professional footballers’ from men’s and women’s football. BFP aims to increase the voice and influence of black footballers’ by achieving our priorities: better representation and well being, improved training and education and supporting community action initiatives.”
The partnership comprises players, ex-players, coaches and executives. Members include Hope Powell, Eni Aluko, Les Ferdinand and many more notable names in English Football.
What are their goals?
Organise an organisation to unite Black current and former players
Represent the future of women’s football by undertaking a review of Black representation in the women’s game
Develop targeted learning opportunities for Black current and former players
Campaign for the FA’s voluntary code on diversity to be replaced by a monitored and enforced compulsory code developed directly with Black current and former players
Identity and reflect the unique status of Black players in the game on and off the pitch
What is the Football Leadership Diversity Code, and why has it been criticised?
The FA’s FLDC is a voluntary code which aims to increase ethnic and gender diversity in football. They wrote the code in collaboration with experts who have investigated this issue.
Some of the suggested Recruitment Principles in the code include:
Job descriptions will be written to encourage a wide pool of applicants
Shortlists for interview will include a minimum of one male and one female Black, Asian or of Mixed-Heritage candidate (if applicants meeting the job specifications apply)
The code applies to all positions in the football club with the exception of the Head Coach and their team, as “we appreciate that this recruitment often has to happen quickly”
If the Head Coach is not recruited through an open process, the club will consider whether it can implement additional development opportunities for a Black, Asian or of Mixed-Heritage or female coach with a clear focus on boosting the job prospects for the participant(s)
What are the FLDC’s Targets:
SENIOR LEADERSHIP & TEAM OPERATIONS TARGETS
15% of our new hires will be Black, Asian or of Mixed-Heritage (or a target set by the club based on local demographics)
30% of our new hires will be female
COACHING- MEN’S CLUBS TARGETS
25% of our new hires will be Black, Asian or of Mixed-Heritage
10% of our new senior coaching hires will be Black, Asian or of Mixed-Heritage
COACHING- WOMEN’S CLUBS TARGETS
50% of our new hires will be female
15% of our new hires will be Black, Asian or of Mixed-Heritage
What’s the Problem with the FLDC?
While some of these principles and goals are solid, one of the key issues is the voluntary aspect of the code. By its very nature, it is not enforceable, and the fact that it does not apply to the hiring of Managers/Head Coaches speaks to its futility. This undermines the attempt to widen access to roles within both coaching and corporate realms.
In addition, while the FLDC asks Clubs to create pathways for diverse talent, they have rarely done this.
What do the numbers say about the current amount of Black Coaches and Executives in English Football?
Sports economist Stefan Szymanski from the University of Michigan carried out the study on behalf of the BFP. This study can be found here.
This study looks specifically at Black, Mixed White/Black African and Mixed White/Black Caribbean professionals (as reported by ONS Census data), compared to other individuals hired by football clubs. Black in this instance therefore refers to all of the above definitions.
N.B. - this data is taken from Transfermarkt, which contains information on the employees hired by Football Clubs.
The key findings of his report in 2022:
Although only 4.4% of managers were black, almost half (43%) of Premier League players, and 34% of Championship players, were black
The percentage of new hires in previous 12 months who were Black rose from 6.5% to 6.9% or from 21 individual positions to 26
Each of these increases lie within the margin of error. In other words, there is no evidence of any significant change
Data from the research commissioned by the BFP showing the numbers of Black professionals in Football in 2022
Comparing numbers in 2021 - 2023:
When comparing numbers in 2021 to 2023, they paint a bleak picture regarding the impact of the FLDC on the numbers of Black professionals in English Football. Broken down further, we can see that in the Premier League the percentage of positions held by Black employees rose from 2.8% to 3.8%, in the Championship from 5% to 6.4%, in League One from 4.2% to 4.9%, and fell in League Two from 1.9% to 1.7%.
According to research commissioned by the BFP, this is the share of Black Employees in Football Clubs in the English Men’s top 4 divisions in 2021 and 2023
BFP Findings on FLDC 2021/22 Results
Only 29 out of the 72 EFL clubs have signed up to the FA's Leadership Diversity Code - that means 60% have failed to do so.
While all 20 Premier League clubs have signed up, the BFP calls their progress "patchy and deeply disappointing".
Only 10 clubs of the 92 Men’s teams in England are meeting the targets set out by the FA (regarding new hires of coaches and senior coaches). Those are: Arsenal, Manchester United, Brentford, Burnley, Burton Albion, Doncaster Rovers, Fleetwood Town, Ipswich Town, QPR and Stoke City.
What are the issues with the data from the FLDC?
The FLDC released a report in October 2022, stating that they had exceeded targets for the second season in a row, when considering the 21/22 season. The biggest claim is that 51 of 311 (16%) of coaches hired in the men’s game were from a Black, Asian or Mixed Heritage background, and that 24 of 111 (22%) of senior coaches hired in the men’s game were from a Black, Asian or Mixed Heritage background.
Of course, one can argue that these numbers are higher due to the inclusion of professionals beyond Black and Black mixed heritage. However, this doesn’t consider that the Clubs hand over this data by choice, and thus they could present it in a more generous fashion.
Also, according to their own data, over half of clubs did not meet targets for coaches, and half also did not meet the targets for hiring for senior coaches. We should not see this as a resounding success.
The FLDC data also states that 36% of candidates across the 12 month time frame were Black, Asian or Mixed Heritage. This means that if we do accept these numbers, candidates with these backgrounds were roughly half as likely to be successful to get these jobs.
What other initiatives are there?
The Premier League created a "Coach index" in 2022, providing specific job information for BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) and female coaches to improve opportunities. In 2021, they created two other programmes: The Professional Player to Coach Scheme and the Coach Inclusion and Diversity Scheme. These aim to increase access to coaching jobs for Black former players, and the Premier League say this has led to 36 new appointments of ethnic minority coaches.
In the EFL (Championship, League 1 & 2), all clubs must use "blind recruitment" for academy coaches, so that an application cannot see ethnicity. This has resulted in 23% of successful academy coaching roles being candidates from ethnic minority backgrounds. The EFL's new digital tool (I-Recruit), used to anonymise applications, supports this.
Elsewhere, The FA’s and the Professional Footballers’ Association’s (PFA) 2018 Elite Coach Placement Programme committed to offer opportunities “to BAME individuals with a view to increasing diversity throughout top level football”. This has benefited black coaches such as Chris Powell, who was part of Gareth Southgate’s staff with England.
The FA’s and the Professional Footballers’ Association’s (PFA) 2018 Elite Coach Placement Programme benefitted coaches such as Chris Powell, who worked as part of Gareth Southgate’s England Coaching staff
What are the causes of this?
Why exactly are there so few Black coaches and professionals in English Football? Well, there are many factors, some Football specific, and others more reflective of the wider issues created by racism in society.
Racist Experiences in English Football
One cause is the experience of racism in Football. This can be through both obvious and concealed discrimination. For example, using racially charged language to describe Black people, or the questioning of technical competencies, which was then not extended to their white counterparts. Senior staff sometimes overlooked Black professionals when considering which staff to send to coaching courses, in favour of ‘preferred’ white coaches. Even when selected, there have been instances of racism in these elite environments. Black participants noted an unwillingness to address these issues by FA coach educators. (Bradbury et al, 2016).
This discrimination often resulted in decision makers looking at Black coaches and professionals through the lens of their cultural and ethnic stereotypes, rather than their experience and qualifications. This had the effect of creating scepticism over their ability to coach or do their job professionally. This even led to the questioning of their ability to coach groups of predominantly white players (Bradbury et al, 2016).
Network-based Methods of Recruitment
Network-based hiring, and the ‘closed shop’ nature of Football is another contributing factor. Research by Bradbury in 2013 argues that the common processes of hiring for senior coaching positions often relies on personal recommendations from decision makers within Professional Football. These are full of the dominant, white ‘old boys’ networks of the game. One can then argue that these practices are a form of institutional racism which counts against the recruitment of minorities.
Bradbury et al (2016) also argue that a growing push towards establishing a qualification based framework for coach recruitment, particularly at academy level, has created opportunities for some BME (Black and minority ethnic) coaches to access coaching positions. This is also clear in the data above.
However, the research finds that in the adult professional game, clubs still lean on network based methods of recruitment. This is even acknowledged by the FLDC’s acceptance of clubs moving outside of its framework for the hiring of senior coaches. This limits the prospects of BME coaches and maintains the narrow ethnic make-up of the coaching staff at English clubs.
Speaking to the Guardian, Rhys Denton said it’s a question of same old, same old.
“We have to look into the way that people are being recruited … There has to be a system that is based on competence and not who you are or who you know. Those are the real habits that we are looking to eradicate from the game.
The step forward now is being able to identify good people and more readily weigh up the risks. I’ve got no doubts that if an employer was to look at my competence and compare it to other coaches then we’d be looking at a more even keel. But I don’t think that happens – I don’t think they are willing to take that risk.”
Lack of BME Role Models and Continued Under-Representation
Another issue seen in the research done by Bradbury et al (2016), is the link between the historical lack of BME coach role models, and the negative outcomes for the under-represented BME coaches in the English game. The lack of role models has had the effect of limiting the aspirations, ambitions and motivations of some BME coaches.
The lack of role models has also led to former BME players and coaches taking up business interests outside of football, particularly in the sports media.
This is what Defoe said to BBC's Sports Desk Podcast earlier this year:
“You know sometimes people get disheartened and they don’t want to waste their time...
I’ve spoken to the players about coaching badges and I’ve had players say to me: ‘What’s the point? I don’t want to waste my time getting my coaching badges and then not get an opportunity to coach. So it’s pointless. I’d rather go into [the] media and hopefully get something there.’”
Jermain Defoe playing for England during his Football Career
What can be done?
Setting Mandatory Targets and Enforceable Penalties
While the intention behind the FLDC is positive, and the FA clearly collaborated with experts on its creation, the lack of strength makes the code unfit for purpose. A commission should set mandatory targets, collect and review data relating to these targets, and publish information every year. If penalties for missing these targets or for not reporting against them were enforceable, we would see quicker progress.
Whilst in the long-term targets and quotas are undesirable, in the short-term they can be a powerful tool to stimulate change.
Positive Action Schemes and Tackling ‘Closed Networks’
With such an under-representation of Black professionals in Football, schemes which seek to create opportunities are crucial to create more ‘open networks’ in Professional Football.
One example is the FA and PFA’s Elite Coach Placement Programme. The aim is to “ensure the diversity of support staff better represent all players across teams but also to continue to grow the talent pipeline of BAME coaches working at the top level of the game across international and domestic football.”
Another example is The BAME player-to-coach placement scheme. This is available for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic PFA members. They can be at any stage in their careers, providing up to six coaches per season, with a 23-month intensive work placement within EFL clubs. This scheme is a collaboration between the Premier League, EFL and the PFA.
A third example is the The Premier League Elite Coach Apprenticeship Scheme. This provides a bursary for eight BAME and female coaches per intake. This sees participants placed in Premier League and category one academies.
Programmes like these are important to provide training and exposure to upcoming coaches. However, these do not target some of the other issues faced by Black professionals. More needs to happen on the administration and business side of Football as well.
One scheme which looks to help is the new Merky FC scheme. This was launched between partnering clubs and organisations, including adidas and Stormzy's Merky Foundation. This programme places young Black professionals in organisations where they can gain experience working in the business side of Sport. Their partnership with Diverse facilitates this. They are an organisation that work with both candidates and businesses alike to ‘Help Diverse Gen Z Talent Get Hired’.
Creating Role Models and Visibility for BME Coaches
Rhys Denton, the aforementioned Reading U15s Coach, didn’t even think of becoming a Coach as a teenager until he saw a magazine article featuring Noel Blake, who was England’s U19 manager. While this is a success story, how many aspiring young Black Coaches gave up because they never saw that article? As Defoe mentioned, they will generally opt to pursue paths where they can see people that look like them with opportunities.
With that said, another way to tackle this issue is to highlight the Black coaches and professionals making an impact in English Football. Giving people hope that they can achieve a goal is a huge part of striving to get there, and by highlighting success stories, English Football can bring more Black professionals into football. This would give Clubs and organisations more candidates and less excuses to choose from.
This is what Denton had to say about the importance of Role Models:
“I didn’t even consider it because I didn’t know there were coaches who looked like me… But when I saw that Noel was coaching in the England setup and having a massive influence on young black players who were making the breakthrough for their clubs at the time, I thought to myself: ‘If I can’t make it in football as a player, I want to be that coach.’ If you can visualise yourself in a job, it gives you something to aim for.”
Rhys Denton taking a training session at Reading Football Club
Changing the Culture of the Elite Coaching Environment
While these measures will help, they will only work if English Football becomes a more inclusive environment for Black people. The FA have introduced Equality Workshops, but these must be mandatory to have the effect they must have in English Football; they need to educate both the educators and coaches alike in how to understand and embrace the diversity of BME coaches and players.
Furthermore, they need a robust set of mechanisms whereby both educators or coaches taking the course could report racism. Anyone found guilty of engaging in discriminatory behaviours should then be subject to stringent disciplinary action. This would deter this behaviour in the future from other participants.
With measures like this, it would send a message that the FA cares about the education environment for its coaches, and would encourage more Black professionals to take up coaching.
While the BFP specifically criticised the FLDC, there are also other issues which have perpetuated this lack of diversity in English Football. While we can see that there have been attempts by institutions to begin tackling the problem, more needs to happen for English Football to become a more diverse and inclusive place.