Eni Aluko to give evidence in Parliament about diversity in sport

Written by Konrad Ostrowski

Eni Aluko has been called to give evidence to a parliamentary committee on the lack of ethnic diversity within UK sports leadership.

The former England footballer, who is now sporting director at Aston Villa Women, will speak to MPs on the Digital, Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) committee on Tuesday.

The lack of minority representation in sport, particularly within the most powerful positions, has become an increasingly pressing issue due to the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement over the last month.

Eni Aluko during her time at Juventus. Image credit Julia Puder

Greg Clarke, Chairman of the Football Association recently expressed his support for increasing diversity and revealed that there are no black members of either the FA Board or Senior Management Team.

Just this week the Premier League, PFA and EFL launched a new coach placement scheme aimed at increasing the number of BAME players moving into professional coaching roles.

The DCMS committee has already discussed the lack of BAME representation at club level with the Premier League chief executive, Richard Masters.

This will not be the first time Aluko has faced the DCMS committee, having given evidence of how she was racially abused by the then-England manager Mark Sampson in 2017.