Diversity and representation of different races and culture in sport is important because it promotes creativity, new opportunities and also allows people to learn about others. It is especially important in sport because it is for anyone to get involved
Although, as time has gone by participation in sport has changed and the groups of people, we are seeing is diverse. Ex women’s professional footballer Eniola Aluko is writing to MPs to address the lack of representation in the leadership roles in sports.
It was reported in a telegraph investigation that in the top levels of sport only 3% of board members are BAME, which stands for Black, Asian, minority ethnic. It was also found that 64% of taxpayer national funded sport’s governing bodies have no BAME members.
In a press conference meeting with MPs, she said “There has been a lot of progress from when I started playing football over 20 years ago, there’s more representation on the pitch but the transition doesn’t reflect when its off the pitch and in the board room”.
Aluko believes that when teams are looking for managerial talent that they aren’t necessarily looking in broad enough areas. “The way to tackle it is about recruitment, recruitment behaviour and recruitment patterns. When we are looking for the best talent, are we finishing in a wide enough pool to find talent or are we doing what we’ve always done which is safe and recruiting from the people that we all know that look like us?”.
In a bid for change she is hoping more influential people can support her cause and stop letting BAME individuals be underrepresented in these roles.
