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A general view as starting lineups are introduced and a flyover is held during a pre-game ceremony before the inaugural game at Polar Park in Worcester, Massachusetts, May 11, 2021. /Getty
**Editor's note: **Mitesh Velani is the former CEO of Saracens Football Club.
The sports field is an important frontier for diversity, and rightly so. Over the past decade, and especially in the last year, we have seen tremendous gains in both representation on the pitch, and from within clubs to tackle racism at the policy level. We must acknowledge the progress we have made on the pitch, whilst mirroring it in sports' board rooms. This can help sports fulfill its social good, as well as maximizing clubs' bottom lines.
The shift from diversity on the field to diversity informing managerial strategy is already under way: For example, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced that it's moving the 2021 All-Star Game and the 2021 MLB Draft out of Georgia in the U.S. in response to the state's new voting laws, which were seen by some as discriminating against minority voters.
What we are seeing is the arrival in boardrooms of the spirit of Colin Kaepernick, who although was initially largely unsupported in taking the knee, was eventually backed by entire leagues – including, across the Atlantic, the Premier League, which made taking the knee official policy until the end of the previous season, and even adapted sports kits in solidarity.
Decisions like that don't come from players, they come from the very top.
This institutional – rather than individual – shift is happening across sports, including in the UK, which was not even the epicenter of the last year's racial justice movement. Premier league clubs, as well as Rugby Union, Cricket and Rugby league clubs, recently staged a social media 'blackout' in a display of solidarity to tackle online abuse, which is often racial.
This trend is both unsurprising and longstanding: Sports are a microcosm of the society in which they are played. We saw this a generation ago in the journey of the first mixed-race South African rugby team in the 1995 World Cup final in Johannesburg. More recently, we have seen sports lead – rather than merely reflect – social change, for example when an Emirati purchased the so-called "most racist football team in Israel," Beitar Jerusalem.
Perhaps more than any other industry, sports inspire people and break down cultural divides. The final piece of this puzzle – which is already being put in place – is for us to see the same levels of representation upstream in management and the board rooms, as we are seeing on the field.
MLB is a prime example of this. Whilst they are spearheading the diversity issue visibly on the field, their figures in the boardroom are quite different. Ninety-three percent of all Baseball managers are white, regardless of a 78 percent white American population. This is not an anomaly but part of a pattern.
In the UK, only six of the 91 English Football League managers are from a minority background, even though minorities represent 14 percent of the British population. There remain only two Black managers, even though the level of minority players on the pitch stands at 25 percent.
Detailed view of The FA crest ahead of the Barclays FA Women's Super League match at Kingsmeadow in Kingston upon Thames, England, May 9, 2021. /Getty
The English Football Association recently launched the Football Leadership Diversity Code, committing to 15 percent of new leadership positions being given to ethnic minorities, and for recruitment shortlists for the highest positions being required to include minorities.
Board rooms, which set the strategy for clubs as businesses and institutions, are similarly in need of a more diverse leadership. This needs to be addressed not only for the sake of social equality, but business performance.
The Sports People's Think Tank has argued that boosted representation in the management and coaching level could improve training procedures, which for many clubs can mean the difference between a win and the loss in a game, which ultimately leads to more revenue and growth of the business.
It's often said that sports teams are now investment vehicles. That is true, and sports should learn from business: The Harvard Business Review has found that diversity improves profitability in venture capital firms. It's not hard to see why; diversity of ethnicity inevitably leads to diversity of thought, thereby improving decision-making.
Ultimately, to appeal to the broadest audience base, i.e. customers, as widely as possible, it's not only the players that need to be representative of the total population, but the corporate structure too. When those who are in charge of marketing, financing and managing sports have a deeper understanding of the audiences they are serving, the better this will be for both sports fans and the industry as a whole.
When the most successful leagues and teams are global brands, it can be outright harmful to profitability and growth for senior management to all come from a particular background, often with similar life experiences.
There is also a human resources value in this: More diversity at the managing, coaching and owning levels can inspire young, aspirational talent from different backgrounds.
Sports can transform societies in ways no other industry can. This makes it all the more important that all sports continue on their diversity journeys, from equality on the field, to equality in their policies and programs, to the final frontier: equality in who makes the big decisions that impact us all.
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