THE Black Footballers Partnership (BFP) found that non-black players were 50 per cent more likely to get into management than black players after commissioning an independent report.

The report looked at the off-the-pitch careers of around 3,500 former footballers who played in the Premier League or Championship between 1990 and 2010.

The report also found that despite black players making up 25 per cent of Uefa-issued coaching qualifications, in 2022 and 2023, they only accounted for 4 per cent of all managerial roles.

Delroy Corinaldi, executive director of the Black Footballers Partnership, said: “A career in football management often looks like a game of Snakes and Ladders; but for black former players, it’s pretty much all snakes and no ladders, and we have the data to prove it.”

Corinaldi’s comparison directly links to findings that black managers are 41 per cent more likely to be fired than white managers.

The report summarised that black former players get fewer chances at management, get promoted more slowly, their progress stalls sooner and they get fired quicker than their non-black counterparts – none of which is related to performance.

Former professionals including Les Ferdinand, Chris Ramsey, Michael Johnson, Ricky Hill, Paul Davis and Sol Campbell have joined Corinaldi’s calls to include diversity and inclusivity objectives in the Football Governance Bill.

They have also called for football stakeholders to work with BFP to understand the lived experiences of discrimination in the game and for black footballers to receive the support they need to progress through every tier of the game unhindered by prejudice and racial discrimination.

“The findings are unbelievably stark,” Corinaldi told the PA news agency.

“The footballers have become the lost generation off the pitch having become the stars on it.

“They’ve performed well, become celebrated by the fans and when they finish their careers they have got their badges and are ready for the next phase of their lives but it has been taken away from them, even though they’re ready for it.

“The game must do better and the independent regulator offers an opportunity for that but if that independent regulator doesn’t address racial equity in the game based on the data we’re showing then it is a missed opportunity.

“This report is an opportunity for the game to reset, to re-engage with the BFP so we can work towards sustainable solutions.”