Report highlights football's discrepancies

Wednesday, 11 February 2004 1:05 AM

A three-year target has been set to tackle "institutional" racism in football.

The goal is to have a greater black and Asian presence in the higher echelons of the game.

At present, black players make up around a quarter of players in England's top 92 clubs, but only three of those clubs have black managers, and all three are found in the Third Division.

The Independent Football Commission's second annual report demanded the game's officials and clubs take immediate pro-active action.

The IFC said that whilst racist chanting was "rare" in grounds nowadays there remained "real concerns" over the low number of black or Asian officials, managers, coaches and administrators.

The commission also called for "positive moves to attract more non-white supporters to grounds".

The report read: "The IFC suggests football widens its net - and ethnic representation in the boardrooms, on FA committees, the FA council and the boards of Premier League and Football League clubs, as well as senior management on and off the pitch, is an achievable target over the next three years.

"If only an Asian player could be seen lifting one of the major club trophies, if only more black and Asian referees stayed the course and didn't find racial comments just one set of abuse too much on top of the referee's usual quota, and if only there was a black or Asian chairman at a Premier League club."

Specifically, the report calls for a "radical restructuring" of how the game is run and organised.

It wants to see the appointment of ethnic minority representatives to six FA committees and the FA council, as well as the Premier League and Football League boards, during this year.

Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said: "What we have to look at is whether in senior management positions, we are representing the communities we serve.

"Are we as diverse as those communities? I can see that maybe we are not as diverse as we might be and that is what we need to address."

The FA said it was committed to taking "massive strides" to combat racism in all its manifold forms.

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