Former international footballer Sol Campbell having to beg clubs for a job in management and ending up at the very bottom club has garnered a lot of attention, but it highlights much deeper issues in football and our society. /1

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/nov/28/sol-campbell-finally-gets-his-chance-to-manage-after-years-in-the-shadows

Although the highest level of football in England is a prestigious global industry and the shop window looks inclusive, you don't need to scratch that layer very deeply at all to expose the dogmatic attitudes that lay beneath. /2

It's not really about excluding POC it's about mindsets that categories people based on their skin colour. If we look at Black British players for example it's possible to make a case that, in terms of numbers, the % of the population is well represented by the % of players. /3

However this hides the dogmatic stereotyping taking place in every level right down to school football. English football culture has decided that Black British players are not intelligent creative leaders, their attributes are physical. /4

Sol Campbell, Rio Ferdinand, Des Walker, Andy Cole, Viv Anderson, these were powerful fast players. Players like Ruel Fox, Rashford, Welbeck, while not so powerful were always very fast. Where are the POC Beckhams, Le Tissiers or Glenn Hoddles?. /5

Now you can claim "If a black Beckham turned up at the training ground at Man U, Mourinho would snap him up!" and I would agree with you. However, that player will not emerge in a vacuum. At aged 13 that player will not be selected to the youth team, or even their school team /6

Sol Campbell's very public struggle at the opposite end of the football industry hides the real issue which lies at every level of football. People are profiled and categorised based on skin colour. Children are discouraged and talent is lost if it doesn't fit a stereotype. /7

This is worse for other POC. How many times have you heard the term "Indian parents don't want their children to play football". Have you ever used it? When did you decide that our country is one where our citizens are slaves to their parents? /8

Growing up in London I played with plenty of Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani kids that had just as much passion for football as any of us. I know for a fact my friends parents encouraged them. They never got picked in the school teams let alone anywhere else. /9

So when we look at the proportion of Asian players in English football in relation to their representation in our society there is a dramatic shortage.

This dogmatic thinking. This predefined stereotyping becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. /10

Sol Campbell's story is not simply the fact that the sector does not want POC in powerful positions. The real issue is far more systematic. Black British players are the POC allowed through football industrys velvet rope because of physical stereotyping not intelligence /11

English football does not believe POC are smart enough to be "the smart kind of footballer". This happens at school level. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy which dictates who gets to play football, & then turns into a barrier for British POC looking for leadership roles. /12

What does this say about day to day people in day to day lives. How are people conditioned by our predefined prejudices. How do we project our dogma to other. Most importantly, how are we raising the next generations. /13

"They come here and don't integrate" is a common cry. Integration works both ways. Particularly, asking people to integrate to predefined stereotypes is not inclusive. Celebrating diversity is less important at a group level, most important at an individual level. /14