Tuesday 19 March 2019 13:23, UK
Diversifying boardrooms at football clubs is crucial to improving the inclusion of BAME individuals in the sport, says Dame Heather Rabbatts.
Darren Moore's sacking by West Brom earlier this month took the number of BAME coaches across the Premier League and Sky Bet Championship to just two out of a possible 42.
Rabbatts, the FA's first female non-executive director and board member, believes football is changing but at a slow rate and has called on decision-makers across the sport to bring about the "fundamental shift".
She told Sky Sports News: "Boards are not that diverse, football is not alone in that, we know boards in the top FTSE 100 companies are struggling to get the diversity.
"It is changing, there are more and more regulations saying boards should be more diverse. The evidence says, if you have more women and black people on your board you actually perform better.
"If you've got all of those people contributing to the decision-making then you'll see work force composition changing.
"I think discrimination takes a long time to challenge, and that's what we have been confronting for decades.
"There is more commitment to change, but there has to be much more resource and effort put behind it to make a real shift. Otherwise, there is a danger we will have the few managers now, but that we don't increase the numbers significantly.
"Part of that is not just about managers and coaches, it is about chief executives at clubs and representation on boards.
"It takes everybody to pull together to make that change happen."
