In a working paper, Associate Professor at Erasmus School of Economics Thomas Peeters and co-researchers Sam Hoey and Stefan Szymanski have tracked the post-playing careers of all professional football players who were active in the English top 2 divisions between 1990 and 2010 and ended their playing career by 2013.
Out of 3420 individual players, they identify 544 (16%) as Black (or of mixed black heritage). Around 4% of Black former players eventually obtain a role as first team manager, whereas 11% of the non-Black former players progress to this level. Black former players face three significant impediments in their career progress: lower recruitment rates in junior managerial roles, reduced progression from junior to senior management, and a higher dismissal rate when in senior management. Peeters, Hoey and Szymanski document the importance of each of these in their sample. They also find that on-field achievements as a player do not alleviate these impediments for Black former players.
About the researchers
Thomas Peeters is an associate professor at Erasmus School of Economics where he serves as the Director of the Department of Applied Economics. He also coordinates the activities of ECASE, the Erasmus Center for Applied Sports Economics. Peeters studies questions on the intersection of strategy economics, innovation, industrial organisation and sports economics.
Sam Hoey is an assistant professor at University of Liverpool Management School. His research interests lie in the field of applied microeconomics, with a focus on labour/personnel economics and sports economics. In 2022 he finished his PhD at Erasmus School of Economics and Tinbergen Institute, supervised by Prof. Jan van Ours and Thomas Peeters.
Stefan Szymanski is a professor of Sport Management at University of Michigan School of Kinesiology. Before that, he had appointments at London Business School, Imperial College Business School, and Cass Business School, all in London. As a leading expert in the economics of sports in general and soccer in particular, he is widely quoted in the media and has written op-eds for the New York Times, Washington Post, and Financial Times.
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You can read the full article from Associated Press News, 19 March 2024, here.