Greg Clarke, former Chairman of the English Football Association, made several racist remarks during a 2020 appearance before a UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, claiming British South Asian people prefer to pursue careers in computing rather than football. Clarke’s ill-founded beliefs were poignantly well-timed given they came just as we were beginning our fieldwork, which involved interviewing 21 British South Asian senior leaders and executives across the football industry. Clarke’s comments crystallised what emerged from our interviews about battles to overcome institutional racisms and biases of co-workers. Drawing on over 36 hours of testimony – working at the nexus of economic sociology, critical race theory and the field of sport business management – we identify factors that regulate the openness/closedness of senior leadership and executive levels of employment in football, namely the role of exclusivity, closed networks, White allies, racial framing and exploitative temporality of non-executive boards.

中文翻译：

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多元化的董事会？英国南亚高级领导者的批判性经济社会学 足球高管经验


英格兰足球协会前主席格雷格·克拉克 （Greg Clarke） 在 2020 年在英国数字、文化、媒体和体育部特别委员会的一次露面中发表了几篇种族主义言论，声称英国南亚人更喜欢从事计算机而不是足球职业。克拉克毫无根据的信念来得正是时候，因为它们来得正是时候，我们刚刚开始实地考察，其中包括采访了 21 位英国南亚足球行业的高级领导人和高管。克拉克的评论具体化了我们从采访中得出的关于克服同事的制度性种族主义和偏见的斗争。借鉴超过 36 小时的证词——在经济社会学、批判性种族理论和体育商业管理领域的联系中工作——我们确定了调节足球高级领导层和高管就业开放/封闭性的因素，即排他性的作用、封闭网络、白人盟友、种族框架和非执行董事会的剥削性时间性。