Will Black Leaders In Sport Stand Up?

Dame Heather Rabbatts is one of the few black leaders in sport

Leadership. Following scandals at FIFA and the IAAF it’s importance in the governance of our sports has been under the spotlight like never before. 

It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently. More so, I have been hoping we will soon see a wave of black leaders in sport to come to the fore.

I was recently asked to help judge a fantastic initiative, Sport Industry Next Gen, in partnership with Barclays. The objective was simple – to identify and then support 28 leaders in sport under the age of 30.

Other judges included entrepreneur, Sir Keith Mills, communications expert and writer, Alastair Campbell and Maggie Alphonsi, the former England women’s rugby captain.

There was only one black leader among the final 28 participants, Hugh Woozencroft from BBC Sport, but despite this, the group was pretty diverse – with good numbers of women and other ethnicities. And it was encouraging to see a decent social mix too.

All the leaders showed off a great range of impressive skills across the day – and I left with optimism about the pool of people we could well see in positions of significant power one day. But who will join them and help bring some much needed diversity, and representation from the black community, to leadership roles in British sport?

Lord Herman Ouseley, Dame Heather Rabbatts and Tessa Sanderson are long standing leaders from our community within the administration of sport, and in recent years Jason Roberts, Denise Lewis, Jason Gardener and Donna Fraser have emerged as part of the most recent generation of decision makers and influencers. It is now vital that others – who may not be sports stars – seek leadership opportunities to ensure our communities voices and experiences are prominent and powerful.

And guess what? More diverse leadership is proven to help business, so everyone benefits.

We shouldn’t forget that many who would have been leaders today, were prevented by racism and discrimination, and did not have the opportunity to take positions they should have.

Our generation and the youth today still face challenges, but we must try and grab leadership opportunities where we can if we are to truly influence the future of sport, and encourage others from our community to aspire to lead too.

*This column first appeared in The Voice Newspaper