Samson Siasia has hit out at the current European recruitment system where black coaches are not given a chance to show their coaching capabilities even after getting the highest footballing and coaching education. Siasia, a former Nantes & Lokeren defender got his coaching badges in Belgium and the United States but doesn’t believe the European football system favours black coaches.
“I want to believe that the reasons there are not many black coaches working in Europe are because the European clubs hardly give us a chance and they do not believe in us,” said the coach, who himself was severally linked with jobs abroad. “Many of us have not only played at the highest level in Europe, but have excelled, but even when we get our coaching badges there, these clubs still don’t give us the break we need to show what we can do outside the pitch.
We have many ex-African players with French nationality, but I can only recall (Claude) Makalele who was at Bastia and that was it. Where is John Barnes with all he achieved at Liverpool and even though he grew up in England and played for that country? He was not given much of a chance there as a coach. Where is another black coach, Chris Houghton? Where is he now? Many of us have good records as players and then coaches, but because the European clubs do not believe in us, we end up having to do something else. And even where they give us a chance, they are quick to dispense with us. Something is really not right, but I don’t want to put any name to it.”