FA publish latest Football Leadership Diversity Code for 2021/22 season
- FA publish Football Leadership Diversity Code
- Huddersfield Town one of 32 EFL clubs to have committed to initiative
- Link to full release available from Football Association below
The Football Association has today published its annual report on the Football Leadership Diversity Code for the 2021/22 season.
The landmark Code was introduced in October 2020 to ensure English football better represents our modern society, focusing on increasing equality of opportunity to encourage recruitment of diverse talent across senior leadership teams, team operations and coaching setups.
The Code now has over 60 signatories, including all Premier League clubs, 32 EFL clubs – including Town - The FA, Premier League, EFL, Barclays Women’s Super League and Barclays Women’s Championship, which are all committed to tackling inequality and embedding greater diversity in the long term.
During the second season of the Code, some progress was made, with football collectively exceeding targets in hiring Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage senior coaches in the men’s game and coaches in women’s football. There was an uplift in the number of recruitment shortlists which had Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage female candidates, while the number of diverse male candidates increased again.
However, while some clubs are showing that positive change is possible, it is clear that more needs to be done across the game to meet the Code’s targets. Disappointingly, the 2021-22 season saw a decrease in the number of senior management hires for both female and Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage candidates. The recruitment of non-senior diverse coaches in the men’s game, as well as female coaches in women’s football, also fell below the targets during the season.