Latest news with #coachingStaff
The Guardian
08-07-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Workforce diversity data in English football is welcome but transparency seems to have limits
Premier League and EFL clubs were required this year to report details of their workforce diversity data for the first time under a new Football Association regulation. This was aimed at promoting greater equality of opportunities, but even people working in football are hard-pressed to find the numbers. The clubs dutifully published the results of their internal surveys on 1 June, other than Manchester United owing to a website glitch corrected a few days later, but the silence from the sport regarding the findings has been deafening. None of the FA, Premier League or EFL commented on the data or published a summary of the findings, indicating that the drive for greater transparency has its limits. In one sense, the silence is unsurprising. Analysis of the data conducted by Kick It Out paints a depressing picture of a sport sorely lacking in diversity, with the staff at most clubs not reflecting the ethnic make-up of their local communities. In the Premier League, 78% of clubs' workforces are white compared with an average of 66% among the local populations and although there is 13% ethnic diversity among the coaching staff, only two top-flight clubs reported having Black, Asian and minority ethnic coaches in senior roles. Staff at EFL clubs appear more representative of their local areas, with 87% of their workforce white compared with an average of 80.8% locally, although clubs in the lower divisions were not required to provide detailed breakdowns of staff roles so the figures for coaches are unclear. Kick It Out's chief executive, Samuel Okafor, welcomed the publication of the data, although there was no disguising his disappointment at the findings. 'For many years we as an organisation have been calling for the game to be more transparent and bring more data into the light,' he said. 'It's really positive that the FA have brought out a new rule which means that all 92 clubs have to publish their workforce data. 'What the data has shown us is probably not a surprise to us or to many people. When we look at Black, Asian, ethnically diverse staff, whether that's in boardrooms, in senior leadership roles, in coaching or senior coaching, you can see there's a huge lack of representation. When we look at women in boardrooms and senior leadership roles, in coaching, we can again see there is a huge underrepresentation. Representation of LGBTQ people and those with disabilities is very low. 'Some of these data points will not be a surprise to many, but having it in the light is positive for driving change and accountability.' Okafor has been at Kick It Out for just under a year after replacing Tony Burnett, who before retiring last summer called for sanctions for clubs that failed to meet diversity targets. The FA created the new rule after mixed results from the Football Leadership Diversity Code, a voluntary reporting requirement introduced in 2020. Fifty-three clubs had signed up by last season and none had met the eight hiring targets to increase diversity among staff. FA sources indicated they were in the process of analysing the data. The governing body plans to submit a report to all stakeholders, including the Premier League, EFL and Kick It Out, before discussing the issue publicly at a Football Leadership Diversity summit in the autumn. Okafor regards mandatory publication as a step forward but there remain concerns over a lack of transparency. Many of the Premier League clubs in particular reported high rates of 'prefer not to say' regarding ethnicity, sexual orientation and disability and did not report data for roles with fewer than 10 staff members, leading to a lack of visibility regarding coaching posts. Many clubs also use the catch-all 'under 10%' rather than giving exact figures, making it hard to accurately assess representation, especially for smaller demographic groups. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion Okafor spent 20 years in the banking industry after a playing career that peaked with Colchester in League One, most recently as a director at the private bank Coutts, and believes football lags behind other sectors in terms of recruitment practices. EFL clubs have had access to an anonymised recruitment platform, iRecruit, for two years but it is unclear how widely it is used. 'The banking sector is ahead when it comes to transparency, when it comes to target setting,' Okafor said. 'There's still a massive way to go in terms of getting the right level of representation across the game. 'There's also an opportunity to look at some of the best practices that happen in other industries and how do you bring them into football. We need diverse shortlists, blind recruitment and all of those key inclusive practices to make sure that it's not just a selected few that are getting the coaching jobs.' Okafor is also eager to make the economic case for having a diverse workforce. 'We will continue to talk about the moral case for change, but there's a real commercial benefit when you have a diverse workforce, when you have a diverse leadership team that looks like the club's community, and when you have a diverse coaching staff … You can't just have EDI [equality, diversity and inclusion] over on one side and financial sustainability on the other side. You really need to bring the two together.'
Washington Post
16-06-2025
- Sport
- Washington Post
The Nationals can no longer pretend that everything is okay
A dam broke at Nationals Park on Saturday afternoon when Dave Martinez lost his cool. He said something managers shouldn't, at least according to the unwritten rules of clubhouse decorum that require blame be shared or shouldered, but never assigned. Because when Martinez said his coaching staff is not to blame for the Washington Nationals' recent futility, he nodded to an 'us' and a 'them' dynamic, a line between coaches and players — a division between one group trying with all its might, and one group failing the other. Many of his players were unpleasantly surprised by the message, according to people familiar with their thinking. Martinez insisted publicly he did not mean to call them out and that he remains firmly on their side.
Washington Post
28-05-2025
- General
- Washington Post
Jayden Daniels looks a little thicker, but he's focused on his mind
The most pressing question at the Washington Commanders' first day of organized team activities was not about the state of their offense, the shake-up to their offensive line or the new look of their defense. It wasn't about the continuity of their coaching staff, with offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury spurning head-coaching interviews to stay, and it wasn't about their rookies.
Washington Post
26-05-2025
- Sport
- Washington Post
Ancelotti arrives in Brazil to take over as head coach of the national team
RIO DE JANEIRO — Carlo Ancelotti wore a Brazil national team cap when he arrived in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday on the eve of his formal introduction as head coach. He is the first foreigner to coach the five-time World Cup winners full-time in a century. The 65-year-old Italian, who arrived in Brazil just before 9 p.m. local time with several family members and his coaching staff, will also announce his squad Monday for two South American World Cup qualifying matches next month against Ecuador and Paraguay.
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Watch McCall Sims, Westview softball win TSSAA District 14-2A championship over Milan
Peoria Centennial football on 2025 season: 'We know we have to work' After losing their first four games in 2024, Centennial ended up winning the 6A state championship. They enter 2025 with a new coach.
