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Brendan with Curtis Davies, Sir Trevor Brooking and children in Birmingham.
Brendan with Curtis Davies, Sir Trevor Brooking and children in Birmingham.

Deepening the pool

17 April 2008
VIDEO: Ethnic Minority media day

Butch Fazal describes the work that is currently going on at his club, Luton United, and how The FA are helping.


The FA today hosted it's first ever Ethnic Minority media day at Soho Square, where a wide range of football personalities and participants showcased the diversity of football in England, as well as tackled some current issues in the game.

Sir Trevor Brooking kicked off the day in a discussion with the BBC's Mark Bright, where straightaway, issues around the lack of black coaches in the professional game, and the lack of top flight Asian players was tackled.

"The whole infrastructure of the game has to be improved" said Sir Trevor "and that means coaching, facilities and club structures.

"At the moment, the brutal fact is that irrespective of whether a 16 year old English player is black, asian or white, the top clubs are saying that our players aren't good enough, and that is why they are looking overseas.

"Brendan Batson has been doing some great pilot work with some Asian clubs and professional clubs in the West Midlands which will hopefully bear fruit.

"But we have to improve the quality of coaching we are giving to our youngsters, to stop the decline in English born players playing at the top level in this country."

Black players are now estimated to make up 25-30 per cent of all professional footballers in England, but only Keith Alexander and Paul Ince are black managers at Macclesfield Town and MK Dons.

Sir Trevor, Brendan Batson and England Youth coach, Noel Blake, were as one on this issue, advocating to the current generation of players to get themselves prepared.

"In 2008 it's embarassing that there are only two black managers in the 92 clubs" said Brendan "but black coaches have to get their badges.

"In the Premier League and Europe there are mandatory qualifications so players can't just assume they can walk into a job.

"Paul Ince is a great example of an emerging black manager but he needs to get his badges, because if he was to be offered a job in The Premier League, he'd find himself in the same situation as Gareth Southgate and Glenn Roeder when they didn't have their Pro Licence.

"The challenge is, working with the PFA and LMA to get more players onto courses, so that the pool of managers with the relevant qualifications then becomes much deeper."

The seminar also took in opportunities for black and ethnic minority fans to join 'englandfans', how an Asian youth football club in Luton has grown over the last decade by working with Luton Town FC, and how The FA are working with the Muslim Women's Sport Foundation to attract more females into the sport.

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