Our Multicultural Athletes and their White Coaches
 

Over a year ago, we hailed the appointment of two of the first non-white coaches in the 41 year-history of American Super Bowl: Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts and Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears. Today, as the countdown to Britain hosting the Olympics gathers pace and our own coaching landscape remains stubbornly monochromic, we cannot but wonder who much longer it will take for a similar feat to materialise here.

Despite political rhetoric to the contrary, three decades of equality legislation and more than five decades of governmental social policy initiatives; we are still far from realising the ideal of an inclusive and truly representative British sporting community.  For a country which has given birth to some of the most prominent modern national sports, our track record of inequity in the sporting arena is particularly shocking.  If we take our 'beautiful game' for instance, official figures make for some rather ugly reading: minority ethnic individuals continue to be overwhelmingly under-represented in the boardrooms and governance structures of football clubs and national football organisations; both the FA Board and the 92-strong FA Council have a 100% white membership and only one FA Premier League club reports having a non-white Board Director.  Similarly, most Community Sports Coaches are still of  White British (92%) and  male (70%) stock. While black players predominate at every level of the game; there are hardly any Asian or Chinese players, at any level at all.  Given that Equal Opportunities training for staff is virtually non-existent in the vast majority of football league clubs and no national football organisation seems to follow best practice in recruitment and selection; the status quo is likely to remain unchanged.  Unfortunately, the picture in other sports appears equally bleak.

This is a particularly worrying trend in the run-up to the Olympics, the pinnacle of sporting excellence and an opportunity to showcase our nation's diversity credentials onto the world stage. It is ironic that having won the bid on the perceived strength of our particular brand of multiculturalism; the reality of multicultural Britain does not quite live up to the glossed over version.  We may well ask ourselves where is indeed our black Ferguson? or Wenger? and so many others?  Why is inequality so rife in our sports? And where is the political willingness and community leadership to effect real change?   In 2012, London will make history by hosting the Olympic games for the first time ever.  One wonders whether it will only be competitive sporting records that will be broken.

Dr Krishna Sarda (Hon) FRSA

CEO

Ethnic Minority Foundation