Ex-Hibs winger Kevin Harper highlights 'unconcious bias' against BAME coaches in football

Former Hibs winger Kevin Harper has opened up on the difficulties black and ethnic minority managers face getting a job in football.

Harper, 44, who left his position as Albion Rovers boss last month following a two-year spell in charge, believes there is an unconscious bias in the game after revealing the Coatbridge outfit were the only club to offer him an interview from over 40 applications sent to clubs in Scotland and England.

Harper, who has spoken previously of the racial abuse he suffered during his career, attended the Black Lives Matters protest in Glasgow over the weekend following the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis last month.

The former Easter Road favourite said: "I applied for 40 plus jobs and that's ranging from first team manager, assistant manager, under 18s, under 23s managers, both in Scotland and down south.

"I probably got two or three replies back, and one interview. My first and only interview was with Albion Rovers and I managed to get the job.

"Being an ex-professional player playing in the Premier League in Scotland, Premier League in England, winning Championship medals in England and having a wealth of experience working under managers like Harry Redknapp, Tony Pulis, Alex Miller, Nigel Worthington ... for me it was difficult to get back in. "There had been no black manager in Scotland for 15 years until I got the job, and when I got the job I said it was disgraceful. In any other walk of life if black or ethnic minority hadn't got a job there would be outrage.

"I've never said I deserve a job purely because of the colour of my skin. I want to be looked at and offered a job because people feel I'm the best candidate for the role."

Asked whether he thought there was an unconscious bias, Harper told Sky Sports: "Yes I do. If you look at Scotland as a whole there are 40 clubs. If you break that down to say there is a manager, an assistant manager and a coach, that's 120 people.

"I think there was only Russell Latapy as a coach with John Hughes up at Inverness as the only black man. When I went in there was nobody - it was only myself - so out of those 120 jobs there was one black or ethnic person in football in Scotland. For me, that's wrong.

"Is every single person in those roles deserving of those roles? I'm not saying they're not, but is there a better opportunity for a black person that is maybe unknown, or is it just jobs for the boys? I know for a fact that my resume was better than people who were getting interviews and I didn't get any, so why is that? That's my question.

"(It made me feel) really, really disappointed because I love football and it's been my life since I was four year-old.

"I was fortunate enough to play professionally and get paid for it, but those times will really be the dark times and if it wasn't for my wife, then no way would I have got the Albion Rovers job.

“I would have just gone, ‘there's no point’, but my wife and my kid said, ‘No dad, you have to keep trying because you've got something there to give and it would be a waste’."

Harper spent six years at Easter Road between 1992 and 1998 before leaving for Derby County. He went on to feature for Portsmouth and Stoke City, among others, before returning to Scotland to sign for Dunfermline in 2007.