England’s iconic soccer leagues are powered by Black talent. But when it comes to coaching, former players say they face the same discrimination they did on the pitch.
LONDON — Last fall, Sol Campbell made a decision steeped in bittersweet catharsis: He would no longer apply for jobs as a manager in English professional soccer. It was sweet because it provided the Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal legend a measure of closure to a post-playing career filled with more frustration than joy. Bitter because“I’ve been pushed into this,” he says with a sigh of resignation.
But since retiring in 2012, Campbell’s quest to remain in the game has left him diminished, at least psychologically. His two coaching stints, for financially strapped lower-tier clubs, yielded unsurprising results and were followed by years of rejection. Perhaps most importantly, English football has a national governing body — the Football Association , which administers England’s national teams and retains partial oversight of its professional leagues — that does not exist in American football. It’s a distinction that should — or at least could — make it easier to regulate the hiring practices of private companies.
In an emailed response to questions from The Washington Post, Mark Bullingham, chief executive officer of the FA, acknowledged the slow pace of change, but said the organization’s commitment to improving minority representation is “unwavering.” Richard Masters, chief executive of the Premier League, declined an interview request for this story, and a Premier League spokesman referred a reporter to an earlier statement from Masters acknowledging the disparity and saying, “We need to do more about that... This is a continued priority for us.”
“People were openly racist,” says Chris Ramsey, whose parents immigrated from St. Lucia and whose 13-year pro career began with Brighton & Hove Albion in 1980. “You would hear it on the pitch, in your changing room, in the streets, in the shops — the N-word. That was normal. You’d get chased by skinheads.”
“I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t apply anymore,” Johnson says. “I’ve been doing this since 2014, and the numbers haven’t changed. I’m still sitting here talking about the same issues. And unless there’s some real interventions put in place, I’m probably going to be retired and talking about this same subject 20 years later.”
But that fatalism, while understandable, appears to be creating a doom cycle that’s difficult to break. The BFP report found that only 14 percent of prospective managers who complete their Union of European Football Associations professional license — the highest qualification and one necessary to be a manager in the Premier League — are Black.
“I genuinely don’t believe the English game is structurally racist,” Jordan says. “I would certainly like to see, and I think most people would like to see, the talent pool of Black players converting into Black coaches. is how do you take away the hysteria, how do you take away the … agendas, and turn it into a grown-up conversation where people can get to the bottom line?”
“It’s one and the same story,” says Bell Ribeiro-Addy, a Black woman and Member of Parliament representing suburban Streatham, south of London. “We’re looking at a situation where people are clearly being discriminated against because of the color of their skin. … It’s particularly appalling in sport, because sport has always been meant to be a place of equality.
the code was voluntary, and only a little more than half of the 92 clubs in the top four divisions signed on. “Ultimately, clubs will choose the best person for the role — and rightly so,” Bullingham says, “but by ensuring that we have strong pipelines of talent and that long-term recruitment policies are in place, we will drive change.”
For years, the powers that run English soccer could count on a lack of political wherewithal from the Black coaching community. Whenever a compelling, first-person account of discrimination appeared in a London newspaper, it was destined to be forgotten quickly. The community lacked the size, power and organization to cause much trouble. It also lacked allies.
With the arrival of the BFP, England’s Black coaching community, a disparate group spanning generations and ethnic heritages, found a collective voice. Among other things, Corinaldi, a former soccer player who apprenticed in Arsenal’s vaunted youth program, has arranged face-to-face meetings for BFP members with high-ranking government officials and soccer leadership, including Bullingham.
“The only time we have seen substantial, practical advances in the last 50 years is with civil rights legislation — where you actually put it into law,” Szymanski said. “Putting regulations and laws in place is the thing that’s worked. But that’s the thing everyone resists now: ‘You can’t legislate for equality!’ Well, in fact, you can.”
As a result, advocates are pushing for a “holding” clause — also called a “Henry VIII clause” — that would allow the regulator’s powers to be expanded at some unspecified point in the future when the prevailing political climate would permit it.
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