Lack of opportunity for black bosses is showing few signs of improving

PATRICK VIEIRA'S sacking by Crystal Palace last month leaves both the Premier League and Women's Super League without a single black manager, while Paul Ince's dismissal by Championship club Reading yesterday means there are just four across 92 clubs in the Football League.

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In the top two divisions, only Burnley's Vincent Kompany, Cardiff boss Sabri Lamouchi and Liam Rosenior, of Hull, now hold managerial posts, despite black players making up 43 per cent of Premier League squads and 34 per cent in the Championship.

Even before Vieira and Ince lost their jobs, a report commissioned by the Black Footballers Partnership (BFP), released last month, found that just 4.4 per cent of management positions in English football were held by black employees. The report concluded that there has "barely been a shift" in the professional game between 2021 and 2023, despite the introduction of measures such as the FA's leadership diversity code in 2020 and the EFL's recruitment code a year earlier.

The second annual report into the FA's diversity code, published in October, showed some positives, but English clubs largely failing to meet its targets.