English FA plans to cut scores of jobs due to virus
LONDON: The Football Association (FA) is planning to cut scores of jobs in a programme aimed at tackling losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the English game’s governing body announced on Monday.
The FA has been forced to act to protect itself against a potential deficit of £300 million ($369 million) over the next four years as a result of the crisis.
The organisation is proposing to make 124 positions redundant, but 42 of those have been achieved by halting recruitment. That leaves 82 posts which will have to be removed.
“All areas of the FA will be affected,” said chairman Greg Clarke.
“We need to save £75 million a year and we’ve got a £300 million potential hole to fill over the next four years,” he added.
FA chief executive Mark Bullingham said the loss of revenue would force the organisation to focus on its “key priorities”.
“We have set out in our proposals some difficult choices because we do not think we can afford to do all the things that we did before,” he said.
“We believe the impact of this crisis is to force us to focus more than ever on our key priorities.”
The FA has already lost revenue since the shutdown of the English professional game in March and will miss out on money from music concerts and NFL matches at Wembley Stadium.
Meanwhile, the Premier League, English Football League and Professional Footballers’ Association have set up a scheme aimed at increasing the number of coaches from ethnic minority backgrounds.
The placement programme, jointly funded by the Premier League and the PFA, is designed to help footballers make the transition to playing to coaching. It will be open to all PFA members from a black, Asian or other ethnic minority background and will initially provide up to six coaches per season with a 23-month placement at an English Football League club.
It will have its first intake for the 2020/21 season. Darren Moore, chairman of the Premier League’s black participants’ advisory group, said: “We all know and agree that the diversity of coaches and managers must increase and this placement scheme represents a positive step.”
The lack of representation of black people in senior leadership roles in the sport has been in the spotlight because of the increased focus worldwide on the Black Lives Matter movement.
Manchester City and England forward Raheem Sterling has questioned why so few black ex-players have made the transition into coaching or other high-profile roles within football clubs.
At present, only six of the 91 Premier League and EFL managers or head coaches are from a black, Asian and minority ethnic ( BAME) background, according to the BBC.
Since last year, EFL clubs have been required to interview at least one candidate from an ethnic minority background for every coaching or managerial vacancy when they run a full recruitment process with a shortlist.