Queens Park Rangers manager Chris Ramsey said racism in football has been "parked, not eliminated," and called for the sport's leadership and front office executives to help spark change, according to a report.
"There was a time when a lot of black players said to me, 'look you have been coaching a long time, you are fairly well qualified but you are not getting on. Why should we continue when we can only get menial jobs?' A lot of them couldn't see a way to working at a higher level than the grass-roots," Ramsey told the London Evening Standard. "Football mirrors life but football has been slow to change. The rest of society has moved quicker. Prejudice against black people playing football has gone. But there are many other parts of football that need to come up to speed with the rest of the world: the backroom, the boardroom. There is not enough diversity in the boardroom and, unless you get that, it will always be difficult."
Ramsey is currently the only black manager among the 20 Premier League clubs. The Football League features only five black or minority coaches at the 72 clubs -- Chris Powell at Huddersfield, Brighton's Chris Hughton, Fabio Liverani at Leyton Orient, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink at Burton and Keith Curle at Carlisle.
Ramsey advocates for the Rooney Rule to be applied in the league and said change starts with leadership.
"I am always going to be part of that pioneering group that won't actually see the promised land of black coaches regularly moving up to be managers," he told the newspaper. "I started at Bristol City as an apprentice just at the time when Brendon Batson, Cyrille Regis, Laurie Cunningham, and Ricky and Brian Hill were kicking open the door for black players. I see myself as opening the door for black coaches and making sure the authorities realise they are capable so Jason Euell at Charlton, Justin Cochrane at Tottenham, Paul Furlong and Paul Hall of QPR can come running in."
Ramsey said that enforcing the Rooney Rule is tough because "individuals own the clubs. And sometimes there is not enough diversity in the boardroom. It is very, very difficult to make somebody employ somebody unless they really want to."
Ramsey said he always knew he had to work harder than other white coaches.
"That is something you are always aware of. Hence, I made sure I was quite educated," he said about his decision to study for his MSc in sport science and coaching. "When I got my degree a decade ago, there were only a handful of ex-footballers with one."
At 52, the former Swindon defender took his time to make the transition into management -- except for a low-profile spell in the United States -- and spent a decade working with Tottenham's academy and under-21 side.
"I played a big role in Spurs discovering players," he told the newspaper. "When I arrived as assistant to academy manager John McDermott in 2005, the last player they had produced who was consistently in the first team was Ledley King.
"I worked in the academy for five years and we brought through players such as Andros Townsend, Ryan Mason, Harry Kane, Tom Carroll, Jake Livermore and Steven Caulker. All the young players they have now, I signed them. And we helped to develop all the players who are in the first team.
"When I first saw Harry in the Under‑13s, I did not think he could make it. He was a little, chubby kid, a slow player, but he had extremely good technique. And he had the willingness to practise. His training became outstanding. He has got to take most of the credit for his application. We helped develop him. He would not be Harry Kane without the right nurturing."