WHILE the rest of the media focused on Gareth Southgate’s comments regarding his England under-21 side being abused online, I was more interested in something he said regarding the people in the room.

He was being asked about the Daily Mail’s story about the racial divide in the U-20 squad and of course Southgate was going to say there was no problem.

That the pictures were just taken at a bad time and that it wasn’t a reflection of society.

But then he said: “Well, I’m looking out at the room and not seeing a very multicultural room.”

I posted the line on Twitter and asked if he was talking about a lack of black and ethnic minority reporters at the press conference.

No-one took notice, the tweet got one retweet from Philosophy Football and the quote was forgotten about, which isn’t surprising.

Newspapers don’t want to highlight the issue that their newsrooms aren’t particularly diverse.

But the former England international had a point. I don’t know every journalist that has travelled to the Czech Republic to cover the under-21 tournament but I would bet the house I live in that none of the reporters are black.

There aren’t many in Britain. Darren Lewis of the Mirror, Rodney Hinds of the Voice, Tashan Deniran-Alleyne and myself spring to mind. After that, I draw a blank.

Leon Mann does work for the BBC and ITV but as an interviewer.

How can that be? That I can only name four black sport writers off the top of my head.

On my course at university there were four black students out of about 90.

While I stayed in journalism, the other three went elsewhere.

Nothing wrong with that, as it is a very difficult career to get in to. But the number of ethnic minority sport journalists is appallingly low.

The Black Collective of Media in Sport (BCOMS) released a guide back in February in an attempt to help the media improve diversiy.

In it they state that “there has never been a black sports editor on a national newspaper” and that “there is not one black sports columnist across the national papers. The only black columnists are all current or ex-professional sportsmen and women, not sports journalists.”

Both those statements are wrong and it is a sad fact that by being the sports editor of the Morning Star, I became the first and, with Simmonds Speaks, the first black columnist.

It is something I am extremely proud of but where is the next generation coming from? Will there be a 100-year wait for another black sports editor after me? I really hope not.

BCOMS bring up the point that there should be a Rooney Rule for sport writers, just to get more ethnic minority writers into the interview room and give them a fighting chance. It should certainly be looked into.

But while we discuss a lack of black and ethnic minority reporters, there is a similar problem with female writers. You don’t see many at Premier League grounds on Saturdays and this needs to change.

Jacqui Oatley, who is a commentator, Amy Lawrence and Anna Kessel from the Guardian and Alyson Rudd of the Times are probably the most recognisable names in the industry.

Obviously you have Sanaa Qureshi, Danielle Lowe and Suzanne Beishon who write for the Star, but none of them would say they are football writers.

Charlotte Hodges works for the Mirror but not in a writing capacity at the moment.

Actually, the Star has a very multicultural set of reporters as well as female writers on the sports pages. Deniran-Alleyne, Qureshi, Amar Azam, Kaleem Aftab, Ravit Anand, Asif Burnham, Lowe, Beishon and myself.

How many other newspapers can boast that kind of diversity?

The BBC flew Oatley, Rachel Yankey, Natasha Dowie and Rachel Brown-Finnis to cover the Women’s World Cup. Great. Excellent. This is what we wanted to see. Women discussing the women’s game.

We constantly get men talking about the men’s teams so it is only fair that the BBC had women talking about Mark Sampson’s side.

But for some reason, Trevor Sinclair was brought in to add his opinion.

No offence but what does he know about playing in a Women’s World Cup? Nothing. So why is he there?

They didn’t fly out any female players for the 2014 World Cup and I can’t see them sending Steph Houghton or Jill Scott in 2018 to give their opinion on the way Roy Hodgson has set his side out in Russia.

Maybe Sinclair is a huge fan of the Women’s Super League and jumped at the opportunity to cover the World Cup. But his spot should have been given to someone like Hope Powell or Kessel — people who can actually relate to the struggle the women’s game has had to endure over the past few decades.