Black coaches and others from ethnic minority backgrounds are still facing barriers that are institutionally embedded in English football.

That’s according to the sports people think tank annual report which says progress since 2014 has been “minimal” for Black Asian Minority Ethnic (B.A.M.E) coaches

Just 22 of the 482 senior coaching roles in English football’s top four divisions are held by B.A.M.Ecoaches, according to SPTT’s research.

The numbers are based on the situation at the start of September, which was before the appointments of jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink at Northampton and jack Lester at chesterfield.

They bring the number of black or ethnic minority managers in the 92 clubs to five – along with Carlisle’s Keith Curle, Nuno Espirito Santo at wolves and Brighton’s Chris Hughton.

It now wants English football to adopt the ‘Rooney rule’.

Named after the former American football club owner Dan Rooney, the rule was introduced by the NFL in 2003 and states that at least one ethnic minority candidate must be interviewed for each senior coaching position.

The English football league introduced a version of the Rooney rule in 2016, making it mandatory for clubs to interview a B.A.M.E candidate for academy jobs but not first-team roles.

After a pilot last season all clubs in the championship, league one and league two have now signed up to extend the trial to cover first-team vacancies.

The research by SPTT, working with Loughborough University and the anti-discrimination group football against racism in football, says the government and the premier league have been too slow to implement changes though.