Monday 25 September 2017 13:13, UK
Football has "wonderful diversity" but needs new ways to attract black and ethnic coaches, says Brighton manager Chris Hughton.
Hughton was speaking as National Inclusion Week kicked off on Monday. This is an annual campaign run by Inclusive Employers to raise awareness of the importance of inclusion in the workplace and the business benefits to having a diverse and included workforce.
One of the campaign's main aims is recognising and valuing what everybody brings to the workplace and "creating an environment where everyone has equal access to opportunities and resources" to help contribute to an organisation's success.
"I do see wonderful diversity in our game and in sports participating across the board at different levels," the Seagulls boss said.
"But we need to do more as a sport and as footballers and stakeholders in the higher jobs and that's certainly where in sport we can work a lot harder.
"We have a huge amount of ethnic players and the imbalances are with managerial roles and particularly the high-profile roles. There always appear to be enough enthusiasm for that to change but we continue to go year-on-year where the changes are nowhere near as significant enough.
"Coaches do contact me about the pathways. It's about having that thirst for knowledge and having that endeavour not to give up.
"What we all want to see is more inclusivity at all levels and we have to work as hard as we can for that to happen.
"The only way that can happen is by opportunities others will get so that black and ethnic coaches will get to further their career."
