Purkiss: PFA must interview BAME candidate

BEN PURKISS, the PFA chairman leading the fight for change at the troubled players’ union, has said a BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) candidate must be considered as a possible replacement for outgoing chief executive Gordon Taylor. Purkiss will step down along with Taylor after the completion of the independent review he called for and he wants to see at least one person from a BAME background in the running to succeed a man who has been in power for 38 years. In an interview with the Evening

Standard Purkiss (right) said: ‘We want to encourage football to be representative of society and the playing membership. At present, you see a disproportion between people from different backgrounds playing football and those on the administrative side: the decision makers, the managers, the coaches. There are well qualified and highly educated people out there from all backgrounds. With all of our positions, we would welcome and encourage candidates from those backgrounds. At the moment there is evidence that there is an unconscious bias that exists. ‘The recruitment process will come out of the review. I would hope the process will reflect the Rooney Rule (a policy originally from NFL that requires organisations to interview at least one BAME candidate). We want someone who represents the players, someone who is close to them and can engage with them, irrespective of background.’