The majority of English professional soccer clubs have failed to meet targets for improving racial and gender diversity, according to a new report. The English Football Association (FA) released a report today (Nov. 22) showing that the majority of English soccer clubs have failed to meet their annual targets under the Football Leadership Diversity Code (FLDC), a voluntary agreement to improve racial and gender diversity. The FA established the FLDC, which includes indicators on age, sexuality, gender, race and disability, to increase diversity on the football field, and all 53 professional clubs in the Premier League (EPL), the second tier (EFL Championship) and the English Women’s Super League (WSL), as well as their respective league secretariats, are required to publish relevant data twice a year.
The FLDC analyzes and evaluates the data submitted by clubs in five categories: senior leadership, team composition, men’s club coaching staff, women’s club coaching staff, and recruitment. The senior leadership and team composition categories require that 15 percent of new hires must be from ethnic minorities, such as African and Asian, and 30 percent must be women .However, EPL clubs only have 9.1% of minority hires in “senior leadership” and 23% of women. Ethnic minority representation and female representation in the “team building” category also failed to meet targets .In Men’s Club Coaching Staff, 25 percent of new coaching staff and 10 percent of new senior coaching staff should be people of color, but EPL clubs achieved only 16.0 percent and 8.9 percent, respectively. In Women’s Club Coaching Staff, 50 percent of new coaching staff should be women and 15 percent should be people of color, but only 41.6 percent and 8.3 percent, respectively.
Recruitment means that at least one male, one female, and one person of color must be included in the interview pool of job applicants, which most clubs met .Among EPL clubs, the big names – Manchester United, Manchester City, and Liverpool – embarrassed themselves by only meeting their targets in the recruitment category .Moreover, United underperformed in all four other categories by between 0 and 2 percent, while Liverpool scored in the 0 percent range in three categories. Tottenham, where Son Heung-min plays, missed the 30 percent target for women in senior leadership, but met the target in all other categories. “In the third year of the FLDC, progress has been slower than expected,” said FA CEO Mark Burlingham. This is disappointing,” he said, emphasizing that more needs to be done. “Professional football needs to take a more open and accountable approach to diversity,” Burlingham said. Tony Burnett, head of the anti-discrimination organization Kick it out, argued that “sanctions for non-compliance” would go 토토 a long way towards increasing diversity.