Discussions have taken place about having a launch event for the Football Association’s Leadership and Diversity code at Downing Street, i can reveal.
The FA hopes the code, to be launched in October during Black History Month, will be industry leading in diversifying the game and has received government backing.
Paul Elliott, who was Chelsea and the Premier League’s first black captain and is now chairman of the FA’s Inclusion Advisory Board, has led the creation of the ground-breaking regulations and spent three months consulting with figures across football.
The consultation process has included interviews with players such as Harry Kane, Tyrone Mings, Jordan Henderson, Nikita Parris, Leah Williamson, Lucy Bronze, Troy Deeney and Wes Morgan, and executives and officials at Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Tottenham, Crystal Palace and Brighton.
i revealed last month that early drafts of the code were set to propose a bold shakeup of English football to improve the lack of diversity at clubs in non-playing roles, including that every black, Asian or minority ethnic candidate who applies for a job in an off-field role is offered an interview.
Diversity targets will also be set and monitored so that there are a percentage of employees at executive, senior management and middle management levels and in coaching positions that sufficiently represents the diversity of playing squads. A third of players are from BAME backgrounds.
The code, inspired by the death of George Floyd and the mass support from English football of the subsequent worldwide Black Lives Matter protests, will be voluntary, but there is strong belief that it will be widely adopted across the game.
A launch event at Downing Street has been mooted, although it remains dependent on coronavirus restrictions.
“We have developed a range of principles which will see clubs commit to being leaders in football diversity,” Elliott announced on Tuesday. “They include meaningful commitments with targets for clubs, with considerations across senior leadership, coaching and senior support staff, developing talent, recruitment, internal culture and reporting.”
Ellliott also revealed that a nine-month review to diversify the FA Board, one of the FA’s key decision-making bodies, has begun.
“Making the FA Board more diverse is something that both [chief executive] Mark Bullingham and [chairman] Greg Clarke are fully supportive of, but it’s not something either they or the Board have the power to change by themselves overnight,” Elliott said. “The composition of the FA Board is enshrined in the FA’s Articles of Association, a legal document that can only be changed by shareholders in accordance with company law.”
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/30Bnimb
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