NINETY-TWO teams make up the top four divisions of the English footballing pyramid

Around 25 per cent of their players are black. But 0 per cent of them have a black manager. This needs to change.

I’m not saying that clubs should fire their manager and hire the first black coach that walks past the training ground.

But I refuse to believe that the best job an ethnic minority coach can get is in the Conference, where Marcus Gayle and Phil Babb manage Staines Town and Hayes and Yeading respectively.

At the start of last season, five clubs had a black manager. By April 6 there were none. Football managers get sacked at an alarming rate but within a few months they usually pop up somewhere else and are given another go, regardless of how badly they performed last time round.

This doesn’t seem to be the case with managers of black managers.

Chris Powell was sacked as Charlton manager after successfully guiding them to the FA Cup quarter-finals. But, with Charlton at the bottom of the league table, he was axed.

Despite never losing the faith of the crowd, Charlton higher-ups decided that he had to go and Jose Riga was appointed. The club stayed up but they likely would have done so with Powell in charge too.

At the time of his sacking some papers seemed sure he would be given a job soon. A young, talented coach on the rise, who was unfairly sacked. Surely it would only be a matter of time before his return to the dugout.

But at 44 how many chances will get he get to manage again compared with a white manager of a similar age?

It seems that the same managers, regardless of their past failures, are always linked with vacant managerial roles.

Roy Keane is already favourite to take over from Paul Lambert at Aston Villa should the Scot be sacked. But Keane hasn’t had success as a manager since he successfully guided Sunderland out of the Championship in 2007 — so why do club chairs look to him?

And should Newcastle rid themselves of current boss Alan Pardew, Alan Shearer would be linked with the role despite having eight games’ experience as a manager — from when he failed to keep the club in the Premier League.

What makes Keane and Shearer different to Powell and Chris Hughton, another black manager?

Of the four, Hughton has guided teams out of the Championship and stabilised them in the Premier League — only to be sacked when the going gets tough.

While he was at Newcastle he was sacked and replaced with Alan Pardew, despite not getting much wrong.

I’m not here to shout racism like Sol Campbell, whose claims that he was denied the England captaincy because of the colour of his skin don’t mesh with the fact that Paul Ince was captain at around the same time.

But the depressing fact is that when the first manager falls this season the likes of Neil Warnock, Alan Curbishley and Glenn Hoddle will be linked with the role despite having been out of the game for years.

Why not look at the work Patrick Vieira and Les Ferdinand have done over the past few seasons while in charge of the Manchester City and Tottenham youth teams?

Or Noel Blake, who spent six years in charge of the England under-19 squad. Recently, Blake was linked with the Blackpool job but Riga is still in charge and if he does go it is unlikely Blake will get it.

I’m not saying that every black manager is the next Alex Ferguson. John Barnes showed in his brief managerial career that he isn’t cut out to lead a team from the dugout while Ince hasn’t really worked out in any of the jobs he has had so far.

There are in fact some very good managers coming through. Ryan Giggs looks like he will do well, while Eddie Howe at Bournemouth and Sean Dyche at Burnley are doing fantastic jobs.

But part of the problem is that there aren’t enough black coaches. One struggles to name 10 ethnic minority because once they’re out of a job they seem to get forgotten — only mentioned when this same topic gets brought up again.

The US NFL Rooney rule, which requires teams to interview at least one minority candidate for head coach and general manager jobs, is once again being discussed.

It has been considered for the Premier League for a number of years, but after 10 years of success in the States why are we still only talking about it instead of putting it into practice?

Is part of the problem that young black players don’t want to become managers because they don’t have any managers to look up to? Do they feel that they won’t be given a fair chance in a world dominated by white managers?

And as for the older, retired players, did the racist abuse they suffered from the stands decades ago turn them off the idea of coaching?

Only they know the answer to that.

Already, players such as Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and John Terry have been tipped to be part of the next wave of top managers. Why isn’t the same being said about Jermain Defoe and Rio Ferdinand?

Ferdinand has dreams of managing a Premier League club soon. I hope they come true and he can usher in a new era of young, successful black managers.