It would be wrong to remember Keith Alexander in terms of his race, but with so few other black managers it's hard not to

By Ian Winwood

Published 15:24 12/03/10

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Many tributes have been paid in the past few days to the memory of Keith Alexander, the 53 year old manager of Macclesfield Town who died unexpectedly and suddenly last week.

Perhaps the most fitting tribute to a man whose managerial career took in six league clubs came from the players at his last one. In what must have been difficult circumstances to say the least, the players of Macclesfield Town took to the field away at Hereford and won their match 2-0.

The death of Keith Alexander is a tragedy for his friends and family and a loss for football. More specifically it is a loss for the representation of black football managers.

Keith Alexander first had his initials stitched into his tracksuit – why do managers do that, by the way? – in 1993 when he was appointed to the hot seat at Lincoln City. With this appointment KA became the first black manager of the English game.

Seventeen years ago football was well on the way to becoming the largely respectable spectacle we see today. But it wasn’t entirely so. There were still some dark corners where racist abuse was heard and tolerated, and whether intentionally or not the appointment of Lincoln City’s new manager stood as a bold statement..

These days you’ve got more chance of hearing a crowd chanting in Latin than you have of copping an earful of a racist sing-song. Strangely, though, the sight of a black manager is not much more common in 2010 than it was in 1993.

There are many schools of thought as to why this might be. Most point to some kind of institutional racism on the part of English football.

Well, maybe, and to a degree. But I’d say at least as much of the blame must be placed at the fact that English football is a bit impressionable and bit, well, insecure. The feeling is that other nations ‘do’ the game better than us, and that we must learn from them. Because of this we look to them for leadership and guidance.

In the matter of race and racism in football there are always improvements to be made. But having said that, the situation in England is better than it is in Spain and Italy. Here, ‘we’ are ahead of ‘them’. English fans are more likely to welcome the appointment of a black manager than many fans on the continent. But it’s also true that most clubs in England are more likely to appoint a Spanish or Italian manager than they are an English manager who happens to be black.

It sounds slightly suspect to say that the influx of foreigners into the English game has had consequences for English talent, but it has. Fewer and fewer English managers are getting a chance at the higher levels of the game, and this scarcity becomes only more obvious when it comes to English candidates who are black.

It would be wrong to think of Keith Alexander solely in terms of his race. But with so few other black managers on the scene, it’s kind of difficult to do otherwise.

Why Keith Alexander's legacy must be the end of racism on the boardroom

Keith Alexander: A Tribute, by Kick it Out campaigner Leon Mann

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