SIDELINES
Opportunity knocks
DAVE ROBINSON
Michael Johnson knew he wasn’t going to get Former Coventry City and Jamaica forthe England Under-20s manager’s job before ward Paul Hall relied on existing contacts to the interview had begun. The former Derby get his first job as Duncan Russell’s assistant County defender had been out of work for at Mansfield Town in 2010. That only lasted two years – save for a brief period spent as a six months, despite guiding the team to the part-time coach at Birmingham City – when FA Trophy final at Wembley, and since then he applied. coaching work has been difficult to find. In With 20 years of experience in professional 2012 he worked unpaid as first-team coach football and numerous coaching qualifica- for Tamworth and helped them qualify for tions, it was only his third interview after the FA Cup third round, before he was forced applying for 35 jobs and Johnson admits to quit because the club couldn’t afford to pay that just getting through the door felt like a the expenses for his 120-mile round trip to great achievement: “A lot of ethnic minor- the training ground. ity coaches don’t get the chance to sit in front For every one coaching job in football of a group of people. So when there are hundreds of appliyou get in that situation you feel cants, while the inf lux of forlike it’s a success; even though it eign coaches into England has doesn’t really mean anything.” further decreased opportuniOnly three of the 92 League ties for British coaches in genclubs have black managers – eral. King feels that the black Blackpool (Paul Ince), Charlton coaches have added pressure: Athletic (Chris Powell) and “The consequences of fail“I’m pulling my Norwich City (Chris Hughton). ing are much higher. They money out of oil and putting it into Twelve years ago, when Jean get labelled with this tag of soccer players” Tigana and Ruud Gullit were being a ‘black coach’. There’s working in the Premier League, a meritocracy on the pitch there were six. As former West Brom star and it’s quite evident if you’re good enough and current FA bigwig Brendon Batson says: or not. But meritocracy is also determined “The numbers don’t lie. We appear to be by the colour of your skin in certain parts of going backwards at the moment.” the industry. Kick It Out is a mainly white Dr Colin King is co-founder of the Black organisation, most boards are white and and Asian Coaches Association (BACA). It is male, as is most of the media. There are affiliated with the Kick It Out campaign but barriers in all areas.” doesn’t receive any funding from the body. At a recent conference held in London “There are so few black coaches because the discussing issues of race in football it was system has been based upon patronage and agreed that there was no confidence in the networking. Chris Powell has done quite a current system for reporting racial incigood job at Charlton but he had to go back to dents to the FA. Trevor Hutton, chairman of a club where he was a player.” AFC Wembley, one of the few black-owned
Graphic details Football’s hard news made easy
England team v Premier League What Richard Scudamore thinks...
73.1% 34.1% 1992-93
Percentage of English players in Premier League first teams
2012-13
What he says
“It's not the Premier League's fault the country's population is only 60 million and there are 212 countries playing this game.”
England team a laughing stock?
TIM BRADFORD
What he means
Metaphorical gold-plated swimming pool filled with champagne
“Ha ha. The Premier League pumps out cash like there’s no tomorrow so the England team can bog off.”
PA PHOTOS
BLACK MANAGERS
Michael Johnson’s search for employment continues
clubs in England, says that after the county FA failed to respond to a series of racial incidents affecting young players at his club, he’ll now look to go to higher bodies such as Kick It Out or the police when reporting incidents. “As far as I’m concerned complaining to the county FA is like complaining to the people who do it to us anyway,” he says. Mark Ives, the FA’s head of discipline, acknowledges the problems but says that a new anti-discrimination action plan will improve the process. From this season the FA will hire staff to oversee how racial incidents are handled by the county FAs, while those dealing with the cases will have to go through mandatory training on race and equality issues. Batson runs a bursary programme which offers financial support to ethnic minority coaches as they take courses to gain qualifications. He believes that if more black people get qualified, the number of black coaches will increase. For Johnson, however, seeing white ex-pros get fast-tracked has made him despondent. “Gary Neville went straight into the Under-21s, as did Phil Neville and Dougie Freedman. I don’t have any problem with these guys, but I look at other people who are qualified and have had equally good careers. I don’t see Andy Cole getting straight in at Manchester United or Sol Campbell getting those opportunities. Frank Sinclair’s now coaching at non-League level after the career he’s had. Talented black players have become disgruntled after putting in all the effort to get the qualifications only to find there are no opportunities for them.” Johnson is starting to contemplate going abroad, like ex-Leeds United forward Brian Deane, now in Norway. He is also considering packing in coaching altogether. “The question I have to ask is how much longer am I going to keep knocking on doors that don’t appear to be opening.” Joe Sandler Clarke
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