I’m the first black boss in Scottish football for 15 years. If that happened in any other industry there would be an outcry
Has there been progress bringing black coaches into the game? I don’t think so
WHEN Kevin Harper takes his seat in the dugout as a manager in Scottish football for the first time tomorrow, it will represent a significant landmark in the former Hibernian striker’s career.
Yet, as well as the natural pride he’ll feel when watching his new employers Albion Rovers take on Berwick Rangers at Shielfield Park, there will also be a small part of the rookie boss that wonders why he couldn’t have enjoyed this kind of experience a lot sooner.
Harper, 42, has revealed that he applied for nearly 40 coaching roles in Scotland before finally landing the top job with the League Two outfit last week.
Shockingly, the North Lanarkshire side were the first to even offer him an interview.
His arrival at the club currently occupying the bottom spot in the Scottish Professional Football League means he is now the first black manager to be appointed in the country’s top four tiers since Marcio Maximo was in charge of Livingston in 2003.
After Dave Smith at Montrose and John Barnes at Celtic, that makes him just the fourth black manager in Scottish football history. And the first for 15 years.
‘If you look throughout the country, even in England, even in Europe, there’s very, very few black or ethnic managers,’ Harper told Sportsmail.
‘In any walk of life, if it took 15 years for a black or ethnic minority to get a role, there would, in my opinion, be uproar.
‘And I think in most people’s opinion, if that was true in any industry, I think there would be an outcry.’
Doors have not opened in Scotland for the former winger since he retired from the professional game in 2009 — and it is not something that can be explained away by an inferior CV.
As a player, the former Scotland Under-21 international lit up Easter Road for seven years with Hibs, before moving south of the border to play in the Premier League for Derby County and Portsmouth.
He has worked under coaches including Harry Redknapp, Tony Pulis, Alex Miller, Jim Smith and Nigel Worthington. Since hanging up his boots, he has achieved his UEFA ‘A’ coaching licence.
But opportunities have been limited until now, with Harper working for a short time as an Under-20s coach at Airdrieonians in 2015, before temporarily becoming head coach with Australian third-tier outfit Mounties Wanderers earlier this year.
Harper admits that he probably wasn’t always the best candidate when applying for managerial jobs, but finds it difficult to explain why it took so long to get an interview.
‘I think if you look at people based on their CV, you tend to pick the person for interview that has got the best CV,’ he said.
‘I don’t say that I was the best candidate for every single job that I applied for.
‘There is no doubt that there were better candidates than me looking at a CV, I have no issue with that.
‘But I think in other times, candidates were not as good as me in my opinion — based on their CV. That’s the way it was.
‘With Albion Rovers, my CV was the same as I had sent (elsewhere), but they felt I was someone that was worth an interview.
‘Then, after interview, it’s about if you have impressed the board and you speak about what they are looking to see, and they felt that I was.
‘I had a dossier on the players, what they do, how we can make the club better on the pitch. I’d done my due diligence on the team and that’s maybe what swayed them. I’m delighted that they did choose me and that I’ve got this opportunity.’ Harper has spoken out in the past about barriers to opportunity for young black and ethnic minority coaches. And, while he feels there has certainly been progress with regards to encouraging more people from different backgrounds to achieve coaching badges, relatively few will get the chance to put them into practice. ‘I think there has been progress behind the scenes — more black and ethnic coaches going for badges, but has there been progress bringing these black and ethnic minority coaches into the game? I don’t think so,’ he said. ‘I don’t see many black or ethnic coaches on the sidelines, as coaches, as firstteam assistants or certainly as managers. ‘Out of the 42 teams in the Scottish League, for there to be maybe one or two black or ethnic coaches on the sidelines, is that progression in 15 years? No.
‘You look at when we started the season, there’s 42 managers, there’s probably 42 assistants, give or take, 30 or 35 first-team coaches.
‘When you calculate that up, and then calculate another 16 (managers replaced this season), another 32 (assistants), another 46 (coaches), you know it’s a lot of turnover, it’s a lot of numbers for there to be one or two black or ethnic people.’
Harper’s first management challenge in Scottish football will not be an easy one.
Recent seasons have not been kind to Albion Rovers. Relegation last season has been followed by another dismal campaign. So far, Rovers have won once in the league, and suffered the ignominy of a second-round Scottish Cup exit to Highland League side Formartine United.
Defeat at home last Saturday to promotion-chasing Edinburgh City left the club five points adrift of second-bottom Berwick Rangers, who they face this weekend in Harper’s first full match in charge.
‘It’s going to be a tough game obviously, they (Berwick) had a really big result on Saturday, pretty much all of the results went against us,’ said Harper.
‘But at the end of the day our season starts from now, there’s 24 games left, there’s lots of points to be gained, and that’s what we have to look at.
‘We can’t look at what’s gone on beforehand and we just have to concentrate on the here and now.
‘We’re in a sticky situation at this current moment in time, but the board, myself, the coaching staff and players believe that with hard work and determination and a little bit of luck we believe we can get out of the situation that we’re in.’