Manchester City star Raheem Sterling wants more black managers

Manchester Citys Raheem Sterling

Manchester City star Raheem Sterling has urged English football to use the global anti-racism protests to initiate debates and find solutions regarding the lack of black representation in top leadership positions in the sport. Calling for racial justice, thousands of protesters have rallied across the UK, joining a wave of demonstrations sparked by the death of African American George Floyd at the hands of US police last month.

England forward Sterling, who has previously been prominent in calling out racism in both the domestic and international game, is the latest sports star to lend his support to the protests. "The protest is a great starting point, to make your voice be heard. But just protesting alone is not going to make a change in this country," Sterling said on Monday in a BBC TV interview.

"It-s how we move on from here. It-s about highlighting things, the society that needs changing, and then acting upon it. We-ve done a lot of talking, and it-s time now to act. This is a time to speak on these subjects, speak on injustice, especially in my field," he added. Sterling pointed a finger at the long-running disparity between the number of high-profile black, Asian and minority ethnic players and the dearth of those, who go on to hold significant managerial, coaching or administrative jobs. "There-s around 500 players in the Premier League and a third of them are black and we have no representation of us in the hierarchy, no representation of us in the coaching staffs. There-s not a lot of faces that we can relate to and have conversations with," he said.

"With these protests, it-s all well and good just talking, but it-s time that we need to have conversations, to be able to spark debates. But at same time, it-s coming together and finding a solution to be able to spark change because we can talk as much as we want about changing and putting people, black people, in these positions that I do feel they should be in," he explained.

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