Byfield to keep knocking the door for black bosses

Darren Byfield (second from right) is one of only four black managers in the Premier League and EFL with Nuno Espirito Santo, Liam Rosenior and Colin Kazim-Richards

• Published1 hour ago

Walsall head coach Darren Byfield says he will "keep knocking on the door louder and louder" to help increase the number of black managers in the game.

Byfield, 49, is one of only two black bosses in the English Football League along with former Bury, Sheffield United and Turkey forward Colin Kazim-Richards, who was appointed head coach at League Two Crawley Town on Tuesday.

Until Byfield stepped up to replace Mat Sadler at the Pallet-Track Bescot Stadium on 11 March, there were no black managers in the EFL following Darren Moore's sacking by League One Port Vale at the end of December.

West Ham United's Nuno Espirito Santo and Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior are the only black managers currently in the Premier League.

"There's not enough," Byfield, who has been given the Saddlers job until the end of the season, told BBC Radio WM.

"But all you can do is keep knocking on the door, and keep knocking on the door louder and louder and louder - and that comes from hard work."

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Research commissioned in 2024, external by the Black Footballers Partnership - an organisation of present and former black players - showed, despite black players making up 25% of Uefa-issued coaching qualifications, in 2022 and 2023, they only accounted for 4% of all managerial roles in England.

The report looked at off-the-pitch careers of about 3,500 former footballers who played in the Premier League or Championship between 1990 and 2010 and found that, during that period, non-black players were 50% more likely to get into management than black players.

Delroy Corinaldi, executive director of BFP, said: "A career in football management often looks like a game of Snakes and Ladders, but for black former players, it's pretty much all snakes and no ladders."

As recently as last September, following the sacking of Nuno by Nottingham Forest, there were no black managers in the English top flight for the first time since between March and August 2023.

At the time, anti-discrimination charity Kick It Out said the English game was at risk of "losing a generation of coaches from a black, Asian or mixed heritage background".

Since then Nuno has returned to management at West Ham United and, in January, Chelsea brought in former Hull City boss Liam Rosenior on a five-and-a-half-year contract from their sister club in France's Ligue 1, Strasbourg.

In a bid to increase diversity in senior leadership, team operations and coaching roles at clubs, the Football Association (FA) launched the Football Leadership Diversity Code initiative in 2020, with more than 50 clubs, including 19 from the Premier League, signing up to the scheme.

However, although the FA said progress had been made it the first three years, the rate had been "slower than hoped".

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Byfield: 'No one is asking for handouts'

Non-league education 'shaped' Byfield

Byfield's route into management began in non-league football with spells at Redditch United, Stratford Town, Walsall Wood and Alvechurch.

He said the relatively sheltered environment of the lower leagues shaped his identity as a coach.

"I had to train probably once a week on a third of a pitch, so you couldn't even get your ideas across," he said.

"But it helped me, shaped me. I was allowed to make mistakes and it wouldn't be publicised. And it's a big thing.

"What came out of that was I knew exactly how I wanted to play. I knew exactly what kind of players I wanted in my team.

"I knew all the fundamentals that were needed, the non-negotiables that would be implemented at a football club and it definitely helps with being a first-team coach."

Currently, there are no black managers in the National League, following Sam Cox's dismissal by Wealdstone in February.

Before former Walsall striker Byfield joined the coaching staff of his old club in the summer of 2023, he had a brief exposure of managing in the EFL, through a two-game interim spell at Crawley.

He said his time in non-league helped deal with the insecurity of that situation.

"Being an assistant manager and interim, you've got to get your message across as simple as possible in the best possible way," he said.

"You've got to challenge the players, you've got to get them to adopt a winning mentality.

"You have to articulate the right way because the days of screaming at them and talking to them in a disgusting way are out the window, we have to keep encouraging them and challenging them on what's right and what's wrong."

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'I'll keep banging the drum'

Byfield's future at Walsall beyond the end of the season is unknown but with promotion to League One still possible - the gap to the play-offs is two points with seven games left - there is a lot to aim at.

Off the field, Byfield's aim is very much on keeping the spotlight on more black players getting the chance to do what he is doing.

"There can't be so many black players and not so many coaches and managers. No-one's asking to be given anything. It's just to be viewed as equal," he said.

"I know a few that have got pro licences and can't even get an interview for a job. Something has to change because no one's asking for gimmies or handouts.

"It's like we're doing our work here, just let us be seen and hopefully it will and I believe it will change.

"I'll keep banging that drum and if it helps other people of minority see another black face in the dugout and encourages them, then that's great."

Sam Cox was dismissed by National League club Wealdstone in February after only eight months in charge leaving the fifth tier without any black managers

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