Sol Campbell says racism may force him out of England

[World Fan]

http://www.theguardian.com/football/...ngland-manager


Sol Campbell says racism may force him out of England to be a manager

• Former Arsenal defender attacks lack of opportunities
• 'Attitudes to black footballers here are archaic'
• Read Sol Campbell's exclusive interview here

• Sachin Nakrani
• theguardian.com, Friday 27 September 2013 08.12 EDT

Sol Campbell says he was close to joining the England setup before 'suddenly Gary Neville popped up as assistant manager'. Photograph: Tom Jenkins

Sol Campbell, the former England and Arsenal defender, believes he will have to move abroad to fulfil his ambitions of becoming a coach due to racial prejudices that exist in this country, describing attitudes to black footballers here as "archaic".

Campbell, who won 73 caps for his country, two Premier League titles with Arsenal and at his prime was recognised as being among the finest central defenders in the world, is currently working towards gaining the qualifications required to become a coach or manager across Europe having retired following a 19-year playing career in May 2012. From start to finish, the process is likely to take three years and Campbell believes that upon completion he will have to leave Britain to begin his new career.

"I want to start abroad," said the 39-year-old in an exclusive interview with the Guardian. "There are no opportunities for me here, not until attitudes change anyway. Everyone has to ask themselves why there are not more black managers in this country and why the likes of [former Sheffield United striker] Brian Deane have to go abroad [to Sarpsborg 08 in Norway] to get a chance. I've spoken to other black players who want to coach and they feel the same, that attitudes here are archaic. I hope and pray the environment changes."

Campbell's assertion is backed up by the paucity of black managers currently working in England, with only four – Chris Hughton, Chris Powell, Paul Ince and Chris Kiwomya – employed among the country's 92 professional clubs.

There may well be vast improvements should the Professional Footballers Association and Football League's plans to introduce an equivalent of the "Rooney Rule" – which requires NFL teams in America to interview ethnic-minority candidates for head-coach roles – go ahead. However, Campbell may be long gone by then given the anger he feels towards the English Football Association in particular.

"I gave my heart and soul for the national team but the FA were not there for me when I had problems," he said. "Even after that, I still wanted to do something with the England setup, and they said they were interested, but the interest went cold. Suddenly, Gary Neville pops up as assistant manager.

It's obvious they want nice people who won't cause them any problems. I put out an olive branch and it got broken, but whatever, I'm ready to move on."

[Lazie]

http://www.theguardian.com/football/...ngland-manager


Sol Campbell says racism may force him out of England to be a manager

• Former Arsenal defender attacks lack of opportunities
• 'Attitudes to black footballers here are archaic'
• Read Sol Campbell's exclusive interview here

• Sachin Nakrani
• theguardian.com, Friday 27 September 2013 08.12 EDT

Sol Campbell says he was close to joining the England setup before 'suddenly Gary Neville popped up as assistant manager'. Photograph: Tom Jenkins

Sol Campbell, the former England and Arsenal defender, believes he will have to move abroad to fulfil his ambitions of becoming a coach due to racial prejudices that exist in this country, describing attitudes to black footballers here as "archaic".
Campbell, who won 73 caps for his country, two Premier League titles with Arsenal and at his prime was recognised as being among the finest central defenders in the world, is currently working towards gaining the qualifications required to become a coach or manager across Europe having retired following a 19-year playing career in May 2012. From start to finish, the process is likely to take three years and Campbell believes that upon completion he will have to leave Britain to begin his new career.
"I want to start abroad," said the 39-year-old in an exclusive interview with the Guardian. "There are no opportunities for me here, not until attitudes change anyway. Everyone has to ask themselves why there are not more black managers in this country and why the likes of [former Sheffield United striker] Brian Deane have to go abroad [to Sarpsborg 08 in Norway] to get a chance. I've spoken to other black players who want to coach and they feel the same, that attitudes here are archaic. I hope and pray the environment changes."
Campbell's assertion is backed up by the paucity of black managers currently working in England, with only four – Chris Hughton, Chris Powell, Paul Ince and Chris Kiwomya – employed among the country's 92 professional clubs. There may well be vast improvements should the Professional Footballers Association and Football League's plans to introduce an equivalent of the "Rooney Rule" – which requires NFL teams in America to interview ethnic-minority candidates for head-coach roles – go ahead. However, Campbell may be long gone by then given the anger he feels towards the English Football Association in particular.
"I gave my heart and soul for the national team but the FA were not there for me when I had problems," he said. "Even after that, I still wanted to do something with the England setup, and they said they were interested, but the interest went cold. Suddenly, Gary Neville pops up as assistant manager. It's obvious they want nice people who won't cause them any problems. I put out an olive branch and it got broken, but whatever, I'm ready to move on."

Strange enough I read an article earlier where David James is coaching in Iceland. Must admit to this day I am surprised how Gary Neville retired as a player and was assistant coach in the national team so quickly.

[HL]

Please Come to Amerkah Sol Campbell....

There are still racial issues here, but europe is still waaay primative in their ways.

I am sure there are Blacks in supervisory, management and director positions in England. They are just not conspicious. The Blacks you always see--wear the fluorescent green or pink security vests at football games.

Come to Amerkah Sol Campbell!!

[Mosiah]

Erm, Sol...do you need an agent?

[Me]

Him sound like him need to complete him course.

[Dunny]

Sol Campbell a big joker, look how long him stop play ball and all now him no have him qualification and expect things fi drop in a him lap. Mek him stay deh watch Gary Neville before him go look him own!!

[Zeppo]

Must admit to this day I am surprised how Gary Neville retired as a player and was assistant coach in the national team so quickly.

Neville had already obtained UEFA A and B Coaching Licences when he was appointed assistant coach for the England team.

Campbell still doesn't have his yet. So that complaint is misdirected.

[HL]

Got to respect your views Dunny. You are on the ground where this is taking place.

Some of us tend to take the path of least resistance.......

[Dunny]

Got to respect your views Dunny. You are on the ground where this is taking place.

Some of us tend to take the path of least resistance.......

HL a lot of these guys just want things to drop in their laps and if it doesn't happen they blame the system, I see Fergie had to beg people like Andy Cole
to come and do his coaching licence. These guys need to get dem qualification first then they can talk.

[Zeppo]

Campbell: FA commission 'should be more diverse'

Former England defender Sol Campbell has criticised the lack of diversity on the Football Association commission set up to find ways of improving the national team.

The eight people named so far on FA chairman Greg Dyke's panel are white.

"I wouldn't mind if they had some black players in there, black players who have actually done something for club and country," Campbell told BBC Sport.

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[Zeppo]

Sol Campbell makes England captaincy race allegation

Sol Campbell has claimed he would have been "England captain for more than 10 years" if he had been born white.

The former England defender makes the claims in an authorised biography serialised by the Sunday Times.

"I believe if I was white, I would have been England captain for more than 10 years - it's as simple as that," said the 39-year-old, who won 73 full caps, including three as captain.

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[Karl]

You can run into 'trouble' making assumptions without the

facts...but at the risk of doing so -

I would wager a bet Sol Campbell is on to something.

Would be interesting to get the figures on numbers of managers jobs Conference through to the EPL and breakdown on race. ...number of years each has been a manager...qualifications... ?????

Are all the managers former top tier players? ...breakdown on level attained as professional footballer would also make for interesting read.

Then there is the matter of say numbers broken down by race of total retired footballers - from year oldest manager retired from playing through to year young manager retired - and %age who wished to became managers? ...%age numbers who 'made it'?

Just have this feeling that Sol is on to something!

[Paul Marin]

facts...but at the risk of doing so -

I would wager a bet Sol Campbell is on to something.

Would be interesting to get the figures on numbers of managers jobs Conference through to the EPL and breakdown on race. ...number of years each has been a manager...qualifications... ?????

Are all the managers former top tier players? ...breakdown on level attained as professional footballer would also make for interesting read.

Then there is the matter of say numbers broken down by race of total retired footballers - from year oldest manager retired from playing through to year young manager retired - and %age who wished to became managers? ...%age numbers who 'made it'?

Just have this feeling that Sol is on to something!

The only way that makes sense is if you look at the number who are QUALIFIED, not who are retired. If only 1 in 10 qualified coaches are black, it is not reasonable to expect more than 10% representation. Also, there are other issues with race and football. Talk to Indians, Chinese Asians and Middle Eastern footballers in England and they will tell you they are discriminated against more than blacks.

[Karl]

The retired may give a look into ratio whites to other races who could have qualified and gone into managing.

In other words if 800 whites retired and only 2 others then maybe more whites than others would become managers?

Point taken on number QUALIFIED (Agree with you on that being absolutely necessary)...but does that not also cause thinking on how many of those who QUALIFIED applied to become managers.

E.g. In JA when I was a trainer of football referees each year upwards of 40 refs were trained but the average over the years I was involved was less than 10.

I took the exam in 1968 in a batch of 20+ graduates only 5 - 6 of us refereed.
Others batches graduated in 1968...eventually after a year less than 10 from total who graduated continued refereeing for 5 or more years.

I think the figures after 5 years on the education list was approximately 200 graduates and a total of 68 active...with approximately 20 fully active...ie. offered services on regularly each season.

Wonder how many referees we currently have active in JA?
I think the need would be about 200+ to serve Prep, primary, high school, and inter-collegiate needs + Parish Leagues and the RSPL.

I would guess that many matches are still being done by volunteers and many others with just 'a man in the middle'?

[Zeppo]

Sol Campbell: England captaincy race claim stuns former FA chief

Palios, chief executive of the FA in 2003-04, said: "I was flabbergasted when I heard the things Sol had said."

In an interview on BBC Radio 5 live, Palios added: "To brand the FA like that is just an example of lazy labelling and he does the case of fighting against racism no favours by saying this.

"If you talk about the selection of the captain and the players, it was entirely down to the England manager. We [the FA] would never go anywhere near suggesting to the manager who should be in his squad or who should be his captain.

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