England and Manchester City star Raheem Sterling has warned that English football's management and administrative teams need greater black, Asian and minority ethnic representation.
The striker appeared on the BBC's Newsnight to discuss the current anti-racism protest movement.
He said that English football lacks diversity in coaching and backroom teams and that player protests need to come with real changes.
Sterling highlighted the divergence in the careers of English stars Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Sol Campbell and Ashley Cole, and the fact that the two white former-pros have quickly landed jobs with top-clubs:
"The coaching staff that you see around football clubs: there's Steven Gerrard, your Frank Lampards, your Sol Campbells and 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 change is being able to speak to people in parliament, people at the hierarchy at my football club, football clubs across the country, people at the national team of England, to implement change and give equal chances to not just black coaches but also different ethnicities.
Manchester City's Raheem Sterling applauds the fans after the Carabao Cup semi final first leg match at Old Trafford, Manchester."Give black coaches, not just coaches but people in their respective fields, the right opportunity. I feel like that's what's lacking here, it's not just taking the knee, it is about giving people the chance they deserve."
He made a contrast between the ethnic diversity on Premier League pitches and on sidelines, and in club offices:
"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."
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