John Barnes says being black has damaged his career as a manager

6% of the total qualified Pro licence holders were Black and they equated to 3% of the total Black managers in the game

I stated earlier this isn't a football issue, only 1% of qualified coaches in Sport in general in the UK are BME compared to 8% of the total population.

http://www.sportscoachuk.org/sites/default/files/Insight-BME-Coaching-December-2011.pdf

The issue is getting more Black ex-players through the qualification route and the issue will dissapear.

I'm sure there's still the odd old Chairman who might be a 'hidden racist' but they'll be few and far between, the issue isn't inherent racism it's a lack of qualified people who are from the BME segment.

As I suspected it's easier for the likes of Barnes to intimate racism, as it suits his own personal agenda

 

Once you bring colour or creed into anything that thing is going to lose its value. As we have white racists, we always have black racists.
Only the smart ones don't show it.

 

Quick interjection - what does BME stand for? Background minority ethnic?

 

Black and Minority ethnic

 

Cheers. So presumably that also includes people from Asian countries such as India, Pakistan, China etc., who traditionally have been less involved in football for cultural reasons anyway?

 

Yes mate.

The reason football continually highlights the disparity is because approx 25% of players are BME, so the number of BME managers in comparison looks skewed, but as the qualified coaches stats prove, there's a reason why the disaprity exists that isn't down to inherent racism in the game - it's down to not many of the BME players of the last generation taking the coaching qualifications.

 

When you say 'the view' which bit do you mean?

The article I linked has 3 or 4 quotes taken from the programme which will air tonight. One of those quotes says that black people are represented in the higher echelons of industry etc. so why is football different. Do you not agree with that 'view'?

 

Yes you mention these managers but at the same time they have all had success. 99% of managers will get the sack eventually. Big Sam is known for keeping teams up and punching above their weight. Pulis the same. Both have got clubs promoted. Same with Bruce Holloway and Mackay. Mclaren won the dutch league. Dalgish and Mancini won the EPL.

Barnes has been terrible at two clubs from the very beginning and Ince has gone through about 6 clubs with the 1st club a success and the rest a poor showing

 

I read somewhere that only 3% of the UK's population is black.
Yet 6.5% of football league managers are black, so in league football, black managers are represented by a figure twice as high as the UK average.
In terms of the higher echelons of the industry? I have always maintained, if you are good enough, you will get in.

So in one hand we have idiots like Phil neville saying English kids aren't getting their chances to play for top class English clubs.
Then on the other we are told that Black managers arent getting their chances at top class English clubs.

Football is full of black players, so why would clubs discriminate against black managers, but not black players? Makes no sense whatsoever.
If you are good enough, you will get in................End of story.

 

Why are people noticing such a thing as football being "different"? All I see is humans playing football, skin colour is irrelevant.

The view = black managers not getting another chance after losing their job. There are many white managers that don't get another chance either.

 

The numbers I quoted are from a study by Loughborough University. There are 10,000 UEFA B award holders, 1,200 FA UEFA A award holders and 205 FA UEFA Pro-License holders - no double counting and while senior roles may include what you suggest, the figures quoted refer to the roles that BME's actually hold i.e. there are no black goalkeeping coaches for example.

 

Black people are represented at the higher echelons of the game - 6.5% of managers positions are currently held by Black Managers

Compared to 3% of the total population being Black, therefore the entire premise of Barnes argument is fundamentally flawed by basic facts.

 

I heard Collymore talking about this last night and his argument was that the ratio for black managers didn't stack up to the number of black players in the football league. The suggestion behind this was that majority of managers are former players. No doubt, there are more black players in the English game nowadays than there used to be but comparing modern day players and manager ratios isn't right. People currently playing aren't going to be current managers are they? So if you are going to look at this comparison, surely you compare the numbers for managers of today with how players were ten years ago? Still far to simplistic a way of looking at it although have I said above, why anyone looks at this stuff in the first place is ridiculous.

 

UK non-white population is approx. 14%.

As I said to G - saying if you're good enough you'll get in, is too simplistic. If racism exists in our society do you think it bypasses football? I don't know the answer which is why I try and keep an open mind when people like Barnes talk of their experience.

 

I did put it earlier - black and minority ethnics.

 

Can you name a high profile white manager who went 8 years between his first and next job?

I understand what you're saying about skin colour not mattering, it shouldn't matter I totally agree with you but can you not allow for the possibility that Barnes has an insight that we couldn't possibly have?

 

I usually respect every word Barnes utters on racism because his view is very similar to mine. Unless its really really out of context, what he's recently said is not his usual view, its the opposite..

 

....and how many Black goalkeepers has the game seen in the last 10 years?

 

Are you claiming Barnes to be a high profile manager? Bar his time with Jamaica, he's been shocking. Equivalent level of profile to Barnes its difficult as I couldn't name anyone at all, one name I will say is Alan Curbishly. Continously linked to jobs of course but not done anything since 2008.

 

He isnt talking about Non White managers though, he is specifically talking about Black managers.
Non white includes, Pakistani's, Indians, Chinese, Japanese etc
So that figure is irrelevant.