Over the last 30 years, the men’s professional football game in England has become characterised by the increasing ethnic, cultural and religious diversity of its playing staff. While this increasing diversity is in part informed by the influx of ‘foreign imports’ at the elite level, it is also the case that secondand third-generation, mainly black, minority participants have consistently accounted for around 25% of players in the English leagues since the mid-1990s. However, despite their long-standing involvement in the game as players, recent research indicates that there still remains a minimal input of BAME players into high-level coach education pathways or into senior coaching and management positions at professional clubs in England.
Research undertaken by Bradbury in conjunction with the FA, the Sports People’s Think Tank and the FARE network in 2015 showed that BAME coaches accounted for just 4.2% of the senior coaching workforce at 92 professional clubs as first team managers, first team assistant managers, first team head coaches, under-21s lead coaches, under-18s lead coaches or as youth academy directors. Further, these BAME senior coaches were employed at just 18 professional clubs, accounting for around 20% of all clubs of this kind. Beyond these senior coaching positions, the research also indicated an additional small cohort of BAME coaches working in football operations positions or with mainly younger players across the youth development and foundation levels of professional club coaching infrastructures.
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