ENOUGH IS ENOUGH: Black figures in the game will now unite to become masters of their own destiny

AFTER YEARS OF INACTION..IT’S TIME TO ENSURE THAT THE COMPLACENT FOOTBALL WORLD OF 2020 IS FINALLY HELD TO ACCOUNT OVER THE SCOURGE OF RACISM

THEY’VE had enough.

Enough of coming up against football’s glass ceiling.

Enough of the brutal truth that, when your career ends as a black player, there are few chances in management, e ven fewer in administration and zero at the top of the game.

They’ve had enough of being told to be patient.

Enough of the lies that the talent pipeline simply isn’t there when black coaches are ready, qualified and perfectly capable of meeting expectations as jobs are

There are no politics involved and there is no disruptive messaging

handed out on merit. Enough of being accused of playing the race card when they tell the truth about the English game.

Black players, coaches and administrators – past and present – have now decided to become masters of their own destiny.

Support for Football’s Black Coalition (FBC) has been rap id and significant. It is there for the entire domestic game’s black contingent – whether they are members or not.

There are no politics involved and there is no disruptive messaging to undermine it. Simply a line in the sand. Could it lead to a black players’ union? Very possibly.

To all those justifiably concerned at the idea, cast your mind back to 2012 when a group of 30 former and current players lobbied the PFA over the John Terry ( right) and Luis Suarez ( far right) controversies.

Talk of a breakaway union back then was met, understandably, with a warning that it would do more harm than good.

Nearly a decade on, black players are still being racially abused, qualified black ex-pros still can’t get a job and there r ema ins ze ro bl a ck representation on the FA board even now, five months after Raheem Sterling called them out in that Newsn igh t interview.

Wo r k i n g g roup s , panels and audits simply haven ’ t moved the dial, with the game st i l l dragging its heels over change and obsessing over taking the knee. The EFL’s voluntary Rooney Rule has been largely ignored since its inception in 2016.

The black players on the Premier League ’s advisory board are known to be frustrated at the lack of headway in terms of substantive change.

The strength of the Black Lives Matter ethos has been watered down, with No Room For Racism in the top flight.

It shames our sport that the game is so weak on all this in 2020.

Eight years ago, that delegation of players – led by ex- Reading striker Jason Roberts and former West Brom defender Darren Moore – called on the game to grow a spine.

They have had enough of the lies that the talent isn’t there when black coaches are ready, qualified and perfectly capable

Since then, little has changed. In 2014, the League Managers’ Association, no less, apologised after describing the racist messages sent by Malky Mackay as “banter”.

In 2017, Roberts was forced to leave English football to get his job in administration, as director of development at Concacaf. Seventeen-year-old

Rhian Brewster, then at Liverpool, also recalled seven different occasions that year alone when he was racially abused or saw it happening to a team-mate.

In 2018, a Tottenham fan was prosecuted for throwing a banana skin at Arsenal st r iker Pier re- Emerick Aubameyang.

A month later, Sterling called out the media for its negative portrayal of black men compared to their white counterparts. Last year, Renee Hector suf fered the first recorded case of racist abuse in the women’s professional game, Liverpool’s Mo Salah was abused at West Ham and Tottenham’s Danny Rose revealed he will walk away from the game when his career ends

because of the lack of protection for black players. In March, striker Jonathan Leko vowed never to report racism again, following his six-month wait for justice after being called a “n*****” by Leeds goalkeeper Kiko Casilla – who has since worn the captain’s armband.

These are just a few examples in a litany of cases.

The FBC intends to ensure that line in the sand is enforced and that a complacent game is held to account.

Sterling called out the media for its negative portrayal of black men...