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Hope Powell

WILL it ever happen, will a black man ever be England boss or would we have better luck asking the queen to turn Muslim?

It's the most high-profile job in the country, everybody knows who the England boss is but yet it's a position that most black men, no matter how high profile they are in the game, know they will never occupy.

Why not?

The reasons are endless but unclear. Most point to the fact institutional racism and the need to have a white face in charge of such a high profile job will negate any effort to offer a black person the opportunity. A look at the football league itself paints a dire picture in terms of opportunities available at management level for black coaches.

Not so for the women's game though. Hope Powell has been in charge of the national team for nine years, during which time she has navigated the team through European championships and World Cup finals. Her record stands along side some of the best coaches in the world and her ability to lead the best footballers in this country in unquestionable.

There's no doubt that there is a considerable difference between the status of the men's England manager and the women's equivalent but as is the case with Lewis Hamilton, who is currently taking the world of Formula One by storm, if your talented enough you will get an opportunity. So, are black people being too cynical to think that they can't make it to the top of the 'beautiful game' because of their skin colour? Probably not. While most people of colour will celebrate and applaud the work done by Powell, embracing it as testament to the fact that a black person can handle the role, it will equally be seen as a flash in the pan, a feat that isn't likely to be realised again. Could it happen in the men's game? Probably not. The fact that we can still be talking about this in 2007 is an indictment on the parameters of what a black person can achieve in the game today. Maybe, the type of racism we are trying to kick out of the sport in 2007 is so covert, so subtle; it won't be understood until some read this article.

Huge strides have been made to make the footballing landscape seem fully accessible to all, irrespective of skin colour or race. But until the corridors of authority and power reflect the participants of the game at its most entertaining level (the actual sport), the queen will turn Muslim before there is ever a black England manager.

Published: 10 October 2007
Issue: 1290

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