This archive report was first published on 9 June 2020.
On November 6, 2019, Manchester City's Raheem Sterling spoke out against a lack of representation for racial minorities in coaching positions and the soccer hierarchy in English football.
Speaking to the BBC, Sterling backed anti-racism protests in Britain following the death of unarmed black man George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis.
‘There’s something like 500 players in the Premier League and a third of them are black and we have no representation in the hierarchy...or in the coaching staff,’ Sterling said.
He pointed out that many former black players, such as Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Sol Campbell, and Ashley Cole, had gone on to become coaches but had not been given the right opportunities.
Sterling emphasized that change would only be felt when there was a more diverse mix in the hierarchy of English football.
‘The change is being able to speak to people in Parliament...clubs across the country, people at the national team of England, to implement change and give equal chances to not just black coaches but also different ethnicities,’ he said.
