England manager Gareth Southgate calls for Bame opportunities at the top British sport

Equality: Gareth Southgate has echoed Raheem Sterling's call
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England manager Gareth Southgate has called for people from black, Asian and ethnic minority (Bame) backgrounds to be given more opportunities to land top jobs in British sport.

The issue of racism has been brought to the fore in recent weeks, following the death of American George Floyd while being detained by police in Minneapolis last month.

The 46-year-old’s death has sparked protests around the world and sport has become a focus to combat the scourge of racism. Sport England board member Chris Grant said earlier this week that racism is a “systemic problem” and he has written to chairs at UK Sport and Sport England concerning the issue.

England and Manchester City forward Raheem Sterling has been vocal on the matter, too, saying there needs to be greater ethnic representation among administrators and coaching staff in British football .

Southgate has been following closely what has been said this week and agrees that people from a Bame background need to believe opportunities are there for them in coaching and executives roles in British sport.

“People have spoken brilliantly this week,” Southgate told Sky Sports News. “Chris Grant is somebody who have I met a number of times. He lectured me in a couple of courses I went on about the institutional racism that he feels exists in sporting bodies.

“I think all of those areas are where we have got to focus our attention, opportunities, this feeling that Troy [Townsend, head of development at Kick It Out] spoke about that people feel there aren’t the opportunities there, so young black people will refrain from taking qualifications or getting themselves prepared because they feel there is a ceiling to what is possible.

“And we need their voices in those decision-making areas and we need to show people that the opportunities do exist. That has got to be at every level of the game.”

To help address the issue, the Rooney Rule requires that black and ethnic candidates to be interviewed for coaching posts, but Kick It Out have argued it is “not fit for purpose”.

The Rooney Rule was introduced from American football. The intention was to increase the number of black managers, which stands at six in the top four divisions in England, but it is not used in the Premier League.

“There is a loophole that allows clubs not to be judged on the mandatory code because it has to be an ‘open recruitment’ process,” Townsend told the Telegraph. “Clubs are not bending any rules of the Rooney Rule if they already have a manager in place. If you are not holding an open recruitment process, you are not under pressure by the code. That itself tells you it is not fit for purpose.”

Kick it Out have been one of the key organisations attempting to fight racism in football in the UK and Townsend has called for urgent talks when football returns to address issues.

“There are five organisations [Premier League, FA, PFA (players’ union), LMA (managers’ union) and Kick it Out] and out of all of them, none of us are performing well [enough] if there are still incidents happening,” Townsend told Sky Sports News. “We are all failing at this present time and that is why there needs to be urgent talks about how football is going to step up to the mark.”

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