Rhode Island FC, an expansion team in the United Soccer League, will play its first professional game on March 16, and there will be a unicorn by its side. Former New England Revolution forward Cano Smith serves as the club's head coach and is the only black head coach of the league's 24 teams.
Even in Major League Soccer, one tier above the USL, representation of black leadership on the sidelines isn't much better. MLS started the season with one black head coach out of 29 teams.
# Black Head Coach | alliance | Percentage of black head coaches |
1 | USL | Four% |
1 | MLS | 3% |
USL executive Christopher Busey, who oversees diversity across the league, told NBC10 Boston that the current number of Black head coaches is “unacceptable.”
Busey moved into the role a year ago. Currently, USL does not have a diversity recruiting policy and only recently began collecting racial demographic information for its players, coaches, and executives. The league is made up of players from at least 70 countries.
More than a quarter of MLS players are Black, and although the league has recently strengthened its diversity hiring policy, its success at the head coaching level is no less than in the USL, which does not have such a policy. Starting in 2021, MLS policy requires that “shortlists for open sports positions include at least two non-white candidates as part of a renewed effort to prioritize opportunities for Black candidates.” One of the candidates must be black or African American.”
In the most recent offseason, there were 11 open head coaching positions in MLS. Not a single black candidate was hired. Sora Winley, the MLS executive who spearheaded the policy, said the outcome after the 2023 season was “very disappointing,” a view echoed by the league's commissioner.
We take a look at the diversity of Major League Soccer and the United Soccer League.
He added that there is a built-in mechanism for updating the policy (including strengthening it if necessary) if an advisory group of players, coaches and management makes recommendations to make the policy more effective. he pointed out.
MLS Coaching Demographic Data:
Year | head coach | 1cent Ast | 2n.d. Ast | GK coach | all assistant coaches | |
White | 2023 | 69% | 76% | 62% | 79% | 71% |
2024 | 69% | 66% | 59% | 79% | 68% | |
latino american | 2023 | twenty one% | 17% | 14% | 18% | 16% |
2024 | twenty one% | 17% | twenty one% | Ten% | 17% | |
black | 2023 | Ten% | 3% | Ten% | Four% | 8% |
2024 | 3% | 7% | Ten% | 7% | 8% | |
Asian | 2023 | 0% | 0% | 3% | 0% | 1% |
2024 | 0% | 0% | 3% | 0% | 1% |
The New England Revolution was one of the teams to choose a new head coach who was not from an “underrepresented group,” but team officials strongly support the policy of ensuring a diverse applicant pool.
Major League Soccer defines “underrepresented groups” as “Black or African American, Hispanic/Latino American, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Indigenous Canadian, Indigenous Canadian; “Women, members of the LGBTQ+ community.'' . ”
“Revolution fully supports the intent of MLS's diversity hiring policy and takes the implementation of that policy seriously,” said Adam Kironsky, Revs' communications director.
Rhode Island head coach and general manager Cano Smith believes professional football is on a good track to correcting its underestimation.
“I'm in groups in both leagues now. We're certainly trying to provide more opportunities for underrepresented groups,” he said. “And that doesn’t just happen to be black coaches, but female coaches and Latinx coaches as well.”