Liverpool Football Club have not met the FA’s Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage recruitment target for senior management roles in the 2021/22 season while local rivals Everton have ‘exceeded expectations’.
The Football Leadership Diversity Code Report investigates whether clubs have met the agreed targets for hiring people of Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage. The report considers the percentage of people hired in this area based on local demographics.
Overall, the FA has seen clubs collectively exceed a 10% hire target through 2021/22 set at the start of the year.
LIVERPOOL
The report has been running for two years to encourage better diversity in the sport. In the first year Liverpool did not hire anyone of Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage in either the men’s or women’s teams coaching set up.The club have not made any progress from the year before and have yet to employ a single Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage person within the men’s coaching team.
In the women’s game, clubs were asked to have at least 50% female hires and 15% of new coaches being from Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage.
The LFC Women had a 66% employment rate of new female coaches to the backroom staff in 2020/21.This year they have only reported a 17% hire rate for women. In terms of hiring people from a Black, Asian, and Mixed heritage background they have not recruited anyone to a senior coaching role.
Liverpool FC responded to the report, saying: “Liverpool Football Club is fully committed to the principles of the FLDC, in addition to delivering against other measurements including the Premier League EDI Standard, Stonewall’s Diversity Champions Programme and partnership working through key stakeholders such as The Girls Network.”
The club added: “This progress has been reported strongly in these independent and external reports to date, although it is acknowledged that the reports represent a single point in time. We are unable to separate data by gender but are pleased to have made progress in ensuring diverse representation on shortlists.”
EVERTON
Everton have exceeded the FA’s 10% target with 20% of new coaches hired this year being from Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage compared to no hires the year before.
Everton can confirm the appointment of Ashley Cole as First-Team Coach.#EFC 🔵
— Everton (@Everton) February 3, 2022
Within the women’s side of the club they didn’t employ any new coaches who were either female or from Black, Asian, and Mixed heritage. This is a decrease in new female coaches compared to the previous report where they had a 27% hire rate.
Everton said in a statement: “As the People’s Club, we continue in our commitment to improving equity and inclusion across the Everton Family. We have been working on a range of initiatives which will form part of our new 10-year ‘All Together Now’ strategy and amplify our equity and inclusion work.”
The club added: “Whilst we have made some improvements, we know there is a lot more work to be done. We will continue to work on this journey in a way which is authentic and builds a space where everybody can feel they belong.”
