Tuesday 28 April 2015 18:58, UK
Kick It Out chief Lord Ouseley claims exclusion from managerial and administration posts within football is more hurtful to black people than racist abuse.
Lord Ouseley, head of the anti-discrimination body, has challenged clubs to change their recruiting practices to make sure they give fair opportunities to people from all communities.
A report last year revealed there was not one black director in the Premier League while 15 of the 20 clubs have all-white boardrooms, excluding honorary board members.
Ouseley, who named Chelsea, Arsenal and Aston Villa as the three clubs who have been the best at dealing with equality issues, said the institutional culture of British clubs had to change.
He said: "Being called names is not the way in which racism really hurts black people. It's in the boardrooms, it's
in the institutions, it's a combination of using your prejudice - which is what the name-calling is about - with power to deny people opportunities.
'Opportunities'
"The exclusion of minorities and women from football club's boards is the real issue. The boards and the backroom staff, these are areas where opportunities are foreclosed. That's at the heart of changing institutional cultures within British football.
"We want you as a club to recognise you are a community enterprise and that you need to open up your opportunities so that people from all backgrounds, women, disabled people, it's not just black and minorities. You are denying yourself the opportunity to select from the widest field of talent.
"Clubs themselves need to say to people 'we want you to come, we want to choose from the best field available and we want to become inclusive'. You have to get clubs to open up their opportunities, to not deny that opportunity to
candidates from different backgrounds."
Speaking at Kick It Out's Raise Your Game conference in London, aimed at helping young people into jobs connected with football, Ouseley said the organisation had developed since criticism from players including Jason Roberts and Rio Ferdinand following the John Terry racist abuse case.
He added: "I accepted that criticism. We accept that it's not enough for football clubs to come out once a year and put on the badges and the T-shirts.
"You have to listen to criticism and take it on board otherwise you are an organisation that's stuck in the mud. When people said you are just about T-shirts, yes perhaps we were, but now the regulatory body is quite good at how it deals with these issues."
