The under-representation and racialized experiences of minority coaches in high level coach education in professional football in England

This chapter will examine the previously under-researched area of the under-representation and racialized experiences of elite level (male) coaches in (men’s) professional football in England. More specifically, the chapter will draw on original interview data with 15 elite level minority coaches to identify a series of key constraining factors which have limited the potential for and realisation of equitable opportunities, experiences and outcomes for minority coaches in the High Level Coach Education (HLCE) environment. In doing so, the chapter will focus on two key areas of minority coaches engagement with the HLCE environment. Firstly, in terms of accessing HLCE awards, it will examine the ways in which a series of key structural and cultural factors have impacted negatively in limiting minority coaches’ initial aspirations towards HLCE and constrained their access to and developmental progression across the HLCE pathway. Secondly, in terms of undertaking HLCE awards, it will examine the ways in which the enactment of racisms and stereotypes on the part of white coach educators has engendered conceptualizations of minority coach identities which falsely prioritize their assumed ‘racial self’ over a more balanced consideration of their realized ‘professional self’. In both cases, the chapter will reflect on the deleterious impacts of these racialized inequalities of opportunities and experiences and the ways in which they have contributed to maintaining the low levels of minority coaches in HLCE and in employment at professional clubs more broadly. Finally, the chapter will contextualize these findings from within a Critical Race Theory (CRT) perspective and will draw clear linkages between patterns of minority coach under-representation, processes and practices of institutional racism, and the underlying normative and definitional power of hegemonic whiteness in the sport.