Patrick Vieira is the only black manager in the Premier League.
Patrick Vieira called on Tuesday for black players to have more opportunities to become coaches or to access positions of responsibility in football.
«When you look at the five main leagues in the world and you look at the number of black coaches in the first or second division, it is not enough“, said the 1998 world champion to the BBC.
The current Crystal Palace manager is the only black man to hold this position in the Premier League, while 43% of players in English football’s elite are black.
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1.6% black men among leaders
Published last week, a report by the collective The Black Footballers Partnership, which brings together a hundred black players in the football sector, shows that among the positions of managers or owners of clubs, only 1.6% are black.
«There is a lack of opportunities. Black players don’t connect enough with the people who make the decisions. But I especially think that the doors are not open to us to do what we can do and access management positions.said Patrick Vieira.
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«When I talk about management, I’m talking about team management but I’m also talking about higher levels of responsibility“, he specified. “We need to be given more opportunities to show that we are as good as anyone else.»
A lack of action
The English Football Federation introduced a diversity code in 2020 which aims to combat racial inequalities, which all Premier League clubs have adopted.
But for Les Ferdinand, the only black man to hold a director of football position in England, this code did not bring changes. “The Federation continues to implement initiatives but these are only words. It’s been 30 years since I warned the federation about the glass ceiling facing black coaches and nothing has changed“, told the Times the director of football for Queens Park Rangers in London, current leaders of the second division.
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