FA wants England coaching staff to be 30%t Black, Asian, mixed or other by 2028

The Football Association wants 30 percent of England's men's coaching staff to have an ethnically diverse background by 2028.

The governing body was told by the Black Footballers Partnership earlier this year that it had to “work much harder” to create a diverse pool of candidates for the position of England head coach. The BFP cited the lack of realistic homegrown options from diverse backgrounds to replace Gareth Southgate when he resigned in the summer.

BFP data published last year showed that 43 percent of Premier League players were black, but that has not translated into coaching positions.

The FA has set a target for 30 percent of England's coaching staff (from the senior team to the under-17s) to be from a black, Asian, mixed or other ethnic background.

The minimum target it has set for itself is 25 percent, up from the current 19 percent.

The FA also wants to increase ethnic diversity within the Lionesses coaching staff through to the U17s, and has set an ambitious target of 15 percent compared to the current four percent.

It also wants 60 percent of the women's team coaching staff to be women by 2028.

The figures are included in the FA's new four-year equality, diversity and inclusion strategy document, entitled 'A Game Free From Discrimination', which was published on Tuesday.

The strategy sets out how the FA plans to improve the diversity of participants and officials at all levels of English football, promote inclusivity by ensuring everyone feels welcome, and tackle discrimination by improving education and make it easier to address and report problems.

At the start of the season, the FA introduced a rule making reporting of workforce diversity data mandatory for all professional clubs in the English leagues.

The rule came into effect at the start of this season and clubs must submit their first reports next summer and every two years thereafter.

FA chief executive Mark Bullingham said: “Tackling discrimination is one of our core ambitions, so we will continue to unite the game to tackle this social issue.

“Through our new strategy, we will work with our partners in football to increase representation, drive inclusivity and tackle discrimination at all levels of our game.

“We have seen how the power of football can bring communities together and celebrate diversity, and we want to continue to use our influence to create positive and lasting change that we can all be proud of.”