I saw two interesting articles today. Patrick Vieira was quoted as saying the door to management was not open for black players. I say Michael Yates posting on social media about Liverpool celebrating Black history at the club 43% of premier league players are black at this point. Slightly lower in the championship. I took a quick look at the club staff on lfc website. It certainly looks to me that Patrick Vieira has a point. Liverpool at this point do not seem to have an open door as he said. This is certainly something that needs some urgent work
Does it **** need attention. Best man or woman for the job irrelevant of race, religion or whatever stereotype anyone wants to throw at it.
I don’t think it’s necessarily a case of not wanting to hire black or ethnic coaches (certainly not at majority of clubs as they just want the best people). I think the issue is there aren’t enough around and why is that the case is the bigger problem that needs looking at and answering. Is it a catch 22 - not enough in roles to encourage others to join up, so younger people don’t join which exasperates the issue? Or there something that’s stopping black people taking their coaching badges?
Think about wee Jay spearing as u21 coach and player as a hire. Link to club, nice lad, always a worker.... but best choice? Who knows. Should we be targeting positive change? I don't know why players do or don't go for training at early age in uni or whatever in analytics or go for coaching or go for reffing. The numbers suggest massive disincentives for non white players
Vieira says "we have to give opportunities to people of colour" but he doesn't say what opportunities just that opportunities must be given. I agree. The same opportunities should be open to everyone who is qualified to take part. So it begs the question - is the FA actively blocking black coaches from taking their badges? A quick Google brought up an article from a few years ago saying that of 44 coaches taking their UEFA licence, 41 were white and there were no women. You won't get black football managers if they aren't taking their badges.
My son was in Cardiff Academy at the time Viera did his badge and they would be the kids that the ex pros coached as part of getting the qualification. Frank Sinclair, Sol Campbell, Phil Babb and David Ginola were also there during that period. Only Viera has gone on to coach at the top level. The opportunity should be a level playing field and maybe a system should be put in place so that when a job becomes available the club has to consider applicants other than just putting an old boy in place.
Are people from ethnic minorities being blocked from going into these jobs - or evenly actively discouraged? Without evidence of this it's a dangerous conclusion to jump to, imo. It would require a really committed racist to deny a black person a job if he or she has the required credentials. The fact that the proportion of ethnic players is much higher than the wider demography would suggest that clubs are happy to employ the best, regardless of ethnicity, wouldn't it?
Does every job get advertised? So if Liverpool U21's need a new coach (for example) is the job advertised to everyone who is qualified? Or does the cub just put in place who they want? Put that scenario into every club and is there a lack of opportunity for coaches as a whole. I would suggest that a better system be put in place so that if you're a qualified coach you get the opportunity to build a CV and have the opportunity to apply for any job that becomes available and that this system would then stop clubs from just putting in place who they want without looking at all options.
I don't know - I was only considering the question and thinking out loud. I thought it was part of employment law to open jobs out beyond the inner circle, but I'm sure there are ways around that. As I've been self-employed for the last 36 years these things aren't very high in my consciousness.
I'm just thinking aloud myself, I don't know either. From what I've seen though they are not advertised so could this be the problem?
Only one white person amongst the five, maybe a fuss should be kicked up that this wasn't a fair ratio...
The same.was said of women on board rooms but then you look about and see the board of companies and go.... hang on just a minute..... I'm just pointing out that at lfc you can actually do exactly that.
And only 8% of Britain is black, so looks like there is discrimination against non blacks for getting cushy PL jobs... Yes, I'm joking and not serious. (In many cases it's academic, societal, or economic discrimination that pushes them to sports in the first place). I don't know why there aren't more black coaches and managers. I don't know if discrimination is involved. I don't know how many black players seek becoming coaches and managers. If they want to be and are being blocked, there is discrimination at play. If for some reason they're not, then there isn't. Simply isn't enough data to say if this is racism at play or not.
Whereas I find it obvious that discrimination is bad (and hurts the team discriminating as much as the applicant, everyone loses). I hope they don't ever do some quota system as those are usually counter-productive.
Interesting thought, not suggesting this be done... What if before being able to manage a team, you had to be a citizen of that country, or played in their football league for three+ years. Obviously, grandfather in existing managers so we don't lose Klopp. A lot of our top managers come from overseas in leagues that might have less racial diversity (I don't actually know) or might have less anti-racism movements (again I don't actually know if this is the case). There aren't exactly a lot of black British managers, but if British teams had to pull from within the island, would we be more likely to get more black British managers as they couldn't just poach the best from overseas (who themselves might be less black because of less opportunity there?) Or would it not make a difference?
So what your saying is, get rid of those pesky foreigners, coming over here stealing our British jobs?
I'm not talking about a quota system but an equal opportunities system where there is a central hub that places the advert for every job that becomes available if you are qualified you can apply and then a shortlisting system kicks in looking at the desirable traits and then finally interview both practical and formal. No need to involve sex or ethnicity right up to the interview.
That's a terrible idea and as Biscan suggests it removes anyone moving to this country from the equation, which is discrimination.
Not at all, would work like the home country club rule. Play here three seasons you're allowed to manage. Just like clubs are required to have so many home grown players (regardless of their citizenship) and was only intended theoretically anyway. In that scenario other countries would presumably have the same rule.
Problem is you’d have gerrard lampard Steve Bruce Sam alladyce and mark hughes managing the top 6. Admittedly would make the lesgue more interesting but then we’d go to Europe and get destroyed
