Football
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Kick It Out wants black execs in Premier League board rooms

#INSERT type:image caption:Lord Herman Ouseley said the institutional culture of British clubs has to change. END#

Football's anti-discrimination chief says black people's exclusion from football clubs' boards and administration is more hurtful than racist abuse.

Kick It Out chairman Lord Herman Ouseley has challenged clubs to change their recruiting practices to make sure they give fair opportunities to people from all communities.

An ITV News report in October stated there is not a single black director in the Premier League and 15 out of the 20 clubs have all-white board rooms, excluding honorary board members. Meanwhile, Kick It Out research this month showed Liverpool's Mario Balotelli has received 4,000 racist messages this season, mostly via social media.

Ouseley, who named Chelsea, Arsenal and Aston Villa as the three clubs who have been the best at dealing with equality issues, said the institutional culture of British clubs had to change.

He told Press Association Sport that name calling "is not the way in which racism is really hurts black people. It's in the boardrooms, it's in the institutions, it's a combination of using your prejudice -- which is what the name-calling is about -- with power to deny people opportunities.

"The exclusion of minorities and women from football club's boards is the real issue. The boards and the backroom staff, these are areas where opportunities are foreclosed.

"That's at the heart of changing institutional cultures within British football.

"We want you as a club to recognise you are a community enterprise and that you need to open up your opportunities so that people from all backgrounds, women, disabled people, it's not just black and minorities. You are denying yourself the opportunity to select from the widest field of talent.

"Clubs themselves need to say to people 'we want you to come, we want to choose from the best field available and we want to become inclusive.' You have to get clubs to open up their opportunities, to not deny that opportunity to candidates from different backgrounds."

Speaking at Kick It Out's Raise Your Game conference in London aimed at helping young people into jobs connected with football, Ouseley said the organisation had developed since criticism from players including Jason Roberts and Rio Ferdinand following the John Terry racist abuse case.

He added: "I accepted that criticism. We accept that it's not enough for football clubs to come out once a year and put on the badges and the T-shirts.

"You have to listen to criticism and take it on board otherwise you are an organisation that's stuck in the mud. When people said you are just about T-shirts, yes perhaps we were, but now the regulatory body is quite good at how it deals with these issues."

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