Roy Hodgson's urge for David Beckham's appointment underlines Football Association's institutional racism

Sol Campbell’s accusation of prejudice within the FA was greeted with ill-informed derision

Sol Campbell will tell you of the pain and unappreciation he suffered when, desiring to commence a career in elite football management through employment as a coach in the England setup, he was rejected by the Football Association in unsavoury circumstances. Weeks later, Gary Neville travelled to Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine as a member of Roy Hodgson’s coaching staff.

For a player capped on 73 cherished instances for his beloved country, former FA chairman David Bernstein’s disinterest was viewed as an insult marginalising his endeavours for England. To think that Neville was preferred for sporting the England jersey on merely 12 caps more is risible. There were conspicuously other motives.

The claims are valid

The subsequent vitriol spewed at him, in reaction to the explosive accusations delivered in his insightful autobiography, was ill-informed and unwarranted. His description of attitudes towards black footballers as “archaic” was deemed exaggerated but he had a valid point. Lord Triesman, FA chairman while Campbell was at the peak of his mercurial powers for club and country, confessed the increased plausibility of the former Arsenal skipper captaining his country on more than the three occasions he ultimately did had be been white.

Campbell’s assertion that it was the prejudice which exists against black coaches which limited his opportunities is provided a hint of integrity by the sensational and inexplicable dearth of black managers working in England. Chris Powell, appointed as Huddersfield Town manager only three days ago, is the solitary black boss employed in England’s top four divisions.

It is simply staggering and so Campbell’s claims are credible. Powell, dismissed by Charlton Atheltic in March, implored for the introduction of the “Rooney Rule”, a quote prominent in the United States which requires National Football League clubs to interview candidates from ethnic minorities for coaching roles, but the FA, the governing body of English football tasked with acquiescing to Powell’s sincere request, must change its attitude to black footballers before the landscape of management in the English game does.

Campbell vehement suggestions that the FA “did not want to know” about his eager aspiration to secure a role as a member of Roy Hodgson’s coaching staff and the huge contrast in reception is informative. Hodgson’s public urge for Beckham to be offered employment on his coaching staff is a stark, and simply inexplicable, contrast to the association’s dearth of interest in taking on an immensely venerated and decorated individual in Campbell. Beckham would serve his country well but the enormous transformation in stance under-lines the FA’s status as institutionally racist.

Hodgson spoke of Beckham’s stature as an attraction but his remarks beg the question that are Campbell’s contributions to Arsenal’s immense success between the years 2001 and 2006 and his status as a driving force in the club’s “Invincibles” Premier League triumph ineligible for such a compliment?

In a period where the FA’s institutional racism is rapidly coming to the fore, the lack of black and ethnic minority members in the FA commission designed to advance England is equally damning, failing to reflect the diversity of the national team.

Raheem Sterling, so pivotal in England’s new era, was born and, till the age of five, raised in Kingston, Jamaica. Danny Welbeck, who is expected to start for England against Switzerland in Basel on Monday, is the son of Ghanaian emigrants. Theo Walcott was born to a British Jamaican father while Andros Townsend is of both Greek Cypriot and Jamaican descent.

Rio Ferdinand’s public expression of his desire to one day manage England to great success is encouraging, showing that he will not be dissuaded by the FA’s unfashionable stance, yet a miracle is urgently needed to produce a timely antidote to the FA’s inexplicable malaise.