‘BLACK COACH CAN BOSS THE ENGLAND TEAM’

GARETH SOUTHGATE believes the FA can provide a pathway for a BAME coach to become England manager.

With the Black Lives Matter campaign prompting Raheem Sterling (below) to voice his frustrations about the lack of diversity in top managerial roles within the game, Southgate (above) has admitted that the traditional route to becoming boss of the national team remains closed off for black and ethnic minority candidates.

But Southgate himself was groomed to take charge of England by the FA after a two-and-ahalf-year stint in charge of Middlesbrough ended with the sack. And the England boss says that the FA will have to continue taking the lead if Premier League and EFL clubs fail to address the failings in their recruitment policies.

Southgate said: “There is no doubt that the roles of a Premier League manager and the England manager are aligned because if you’ve not gained experience in the Premier League then it’s going to be very difficult.

“You can come through the development teams like I did.

“But at the moment, one tends to lead to the other.

“I think it’s possible for a BAME coach to become England manager – but what is most important is that black coaches feel it’s possible.

“There is nothing worse for me than hearing someone like Jermain Defoe questioning whether it is worth him taking his coaching qualifications.

“That, for me, is the biggest crime of all... if someone feels there is a ceiling to what they can achieve in life. That’s not a country we want to be proud of.

“We need people like Jermain and people in the current group like Fabian Delph and Danny Rose to think it’s worthwhile.

“If we feel they have got the potential to be coaches, if it’s what they want to do, if they have a real desire and passion to do it, then we’ve got to make it achievable. I’ve been on calls with Ashley Cole where he has said it is what he wants to head. “Removing that ceiling for ethnic minority groups is one of the biggest challenges we face, not just in football, but right across society. “We can affect football – so that’s our responsibility.” Southgate, 49, became England Under-21 boss almost four years after leaving Boro. Since succeeding Sam Allardyce in the top job in 2016, he has developed into an impressive leader who commands the respect of his squad. In April, he agreed to take a 30 per cent cut in his £3million-a-year wages to help the FA deal with the financial ramifications of the coronavirus crisis. Southgate said: “It was a decision made in two parts. “Firstly, I can’t fulfil the whole part of my job at the moment – that’s clear. “The second part is we are different to a club. I would be the highest earner and when the organisation is in financial difficulty and furloughing people, then it didn’t feel right to me that I wasn’t contributing to the bigger picture. “For me, it is straightforward leadership. Something that I just felt strongly about. “We have a lot of people who do brilliant work in different areas of the FA and they are not as fortunate to earn what I earn. “I just felt it was important to play a part. “I didn’t particularly want that to be public – but pretty much everything of that nature becomes public.”

Biggest crime is feeling there’s a ceiling to what you can achieve