West Brom fan Jaz Baines puts the case for his club making more of an effort to recruit players from ethnic minority backgrounds

According to the PFA about one in five professional footballers in the Premiership and Nationwide League are black. To judge by the latest Rothmans, fifteen clubs had no black players on their books last season. Black players will always come and go, of course, and there may be other mitigating circumstances, not least the fact that clubs situated in areas like Yorkshire & Humberside and Tyne & Wear, where the black population is 0.7 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively, are less likely to recruit black players than clubs in London or the Midlands. However, while the presence of the likes of Tranmere, York, Grimsby and Hartlepool on this list is no surprise, the inclusion of West Bromwich Albion ought to raise a few eyebrows.

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The Kick It Out campaign entered its second season with a presentation of a report, Alive and Still Kicking, produced by three researchers at Goldsmiths College,  Les Back, Tim Crabbe and John Solomos, who offer their views on the progress made by the campain

Monday, 21st October saw the latest relaunch of the “Let’s Kick Racism Out of Football Campaign”. With such launches now becoming something of an annual event and the media becoming a little tired of the subject matter, the sceptic might be left asking what new there is to say. Indeed, anyone attending last year’s launch might have been left to wonder whether there was any point to carrying on anyway, given the almost universal declaration from the panel that racism was not really much of a problem anymore.

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Premier League fixtures get unfixed. Football League matches get put off at short notice. Steve Parish wonders whether internationals are worth the chaos

Premier League clubs, with only 38 matches to play, get Saturdays off when there are international matches on, but down in the Nationwide First Division those weekends bring chaos.

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After a spate of sackings in Scotland Gary Oliver provides a recap of the carnage

Only a quarter of the Scottish League season gone, but already a number of the managers listed in this year’s Rothmans are history. To follow the complex trail of resignations and sackings requires the aid of a flow chart ; that, however, would tell nothing of the machinations that have accompanied the cull.

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Superstars, who needs them? Ian Plenderleith reports on Tomas Brolin's not so successful time in Switzerland

It’s a story as old as a Viking legend. Poor, struggling football club surviving on meagre gates suddenly signs big name international striker. Big name turns up amid huge fanfare, yards of extra newspaper print and hyped-up expectation among the fans. Big name runs out onto the pitch overweight and unfit, and after failing to score a goal in a handful of appearances disappears out the back door unnoticed and unmourned.

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