Manchester City forward Raheem Sterling has urged the Premier League and Football Association (FA) to address a lack of black representation in high positions.

Sterling has backed anti-racism protests in the UK after the death of George Floyd in the United States on May 25.

“This is a time to speak on these subjects, speak on injustice, especially in my field,” he told the BBC. “There’s something like 500 players in the Premier League and a third of them are black and we have no representation of us in the hierarchy, no representation of us in the coaching staffs. There’s not a lot of faces that we can relate to and have conversations with.cheap nike nfl jersey

“With these protests that are going on it’s all well and good just talking, but it’s time that we need to have conversations, to be able to spark debates.

“There’s Steven Gerrard, your Frank Lampards, you have your Sol Campbells and you have your Ashley Coles. All had great careers, all played for England. At the same time, they’ve all respectfully done their coaching badges to coach at the highest level and the two that haven’t been given the right opportunities are the two black former players.

The English Football League (EFL) introduced its own version of the NFL‘s “Rooney Rule” last year in order for clubs to interview at least one Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) candidate for any first-team managerial position.

However, there are only four BAME managers in English football, with Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo being the only black Premier League manager.cheap nike nfl jerseys wholesale

Troy Townsend, head of development for anti-racism group Kick It Out, has criticised the policy and said it is “not fit for purpose.”

“There is a loophole that allows clubs not to be judged on the mandatory code because it has to be an ‘open recruitment’ process,” he told the Telegraph.

“Clubs are not bending any rules of the Rooney Rule if they already have a manager in place. If you are not holding an open recruitment process, you are not under pressure by the code. So that itself tells you it is not fit for purpose.

“We didn’t receive data after the pilot series. I’ve always questioned the sharing of data in general, whether that is reporting of incidents or the number of coaches going through a process and what learning they have gone through.”