I can't get a manager's job because I'm black, John Barnes tells ITV
Former Liverpool and England legend John Barnes would like to work again as a football manager - but says his chances of getting one have been harmed because of the colour of his skin.
The former Celtic, Jamaica and Tranmere Rovers manager, who last took charge of a team in 2009, tells ITV4's John Barnes: Sports Life Stories programme that white managers are able to get another job if they are sacked - but black managers cannot simply walk into another club.
He says: A white manager loses his job and gets another job, he loses his job, he gets another job. Very few black managers can lose their job and get another job.
What I can judge it from is by looking at society. How many black people are there in the higher echelons of any industry? We can talk about journalism, we can talk about politics. So why should football be any different?
John also dismisses the idea that the Celtic job, when he got it, was too much too soon. He says: Well if it comes now at 51, I don't think it will be any different. It's more to do with the perception of my ability to do the job, because there's a certain perception of who can make a good manager.
With just six managers in the Premier League and Football League from black and minority ethnic backgrounds compared to three at the 92 clubs when Barnes retired from playing, his former England team-mate Ian Wright agrees.
He says: With someone of John Barnes' ability and stature, to not have worked more in the game with something that he's desperate to do. I don't know what else it can be?
The programme, which airs at 10.10pm on Tuesday, traces John's journey from being spotted by a taxi driver as a youngster, to becoming a pioneering black player and winning league titles with Liverpool.
Wright also says that John opened doors for other black players to move to top clubs when he moved from Watford to Merseyside in 1987. He says: If John Barnes goes and fails at somewhere like Liverpool that puts us back. I don't know how much longer it would have taken for us to get through to that level.
With contributions from fellow footballers Steve McManaman and Ian Wright as well as his former managers Kenny Dalglish and Graham Taylor, Sports Life Stories follows the left winger's career from growing up as a young boy in Jamaica to signing for Watford for the price of some new kits, and on to glory in the famous Liverpool team of the late 1980s.
McManaman says it is easy to forget just how good the winger was in his heyday: He set the bar very high, did Barnesy, and I hope he goes down as one of the great figures in British football, because he certainly should be.
John also talks about scoring arguably his most famous goal - the winner for England against Brazil at the Maracana in 1984.
He says: I remember chesting the ball down when Mark Hateley passes it to me. Then of course, I've gone on a run. I remember wanting to shoot when I got to the edge of the box with my left foot, but Tony Woodcock was in the way. I dragged the ball inside, and then looked up and I've just seen the goalkeeper. And I thought, How did I get here?'
John also talks about the tragic events at Hillsborough in 1989, after which he attended funerals and met the families of victims like other players following the disaster. He says: I felt this guilt that they were coming to watch me. I know that they were coming to watch everybody else, and it's Liverpool Football Club. It's an irrational thought. So I felt this guilt. And I wasn't sure how they would react because had that been my loved one, I wouldn't want to go and meet footballers or the football team, or ever watch football again.
His manager at Watford, Graham Taylor, says John's footballing skill is something that should live long in peoples' memories. He says: His legacy, I hope, is not going to be that he couldn't get a manager's job because of his colour. It has to be about his playing ability. It just has to be.
Ian Wright agrees, and says: He's up there with the greats of English football and British football, easily. Easily.
Notes to editors
If any of this material is used for print, broadcast or online, please credit John Barnes: Sports Life Stories ITV4 10.10pm Tuesday March 31.
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I can't get a manager's job because I'm black, John Barnes tells ITV
