John Barnes will have a tale or two to tell when he attends the Black Coaches’ Forum in London tomorrow.

The former Liverpool winger’s sacking as Tranmere Rovers manager last week brought the number of black managers working among the 92 professional clubs in England back to two and reignited the debate about why the opportunities afforded to non-whites in coaching and management in this country still seem so thin on the ground.

Barnes, 45, would be the first to say that a record of eight defeats in 11 league games at the Coca-Cola League One club was not good enough, even if the severe financial limitations he was working under were often conveniently overlooked, but he must have justifiable cause to wonder if he will work in management again.

After an ill-fated spell at Celtic, it took Barnes nearly ten years before another club were willing to give him a second chance. How long will he have to wait before he gets a third roll of the dice? Twenty years?

For Andrew Cole, the former Manchester United, Newcastle United and England striker, who is one of a number of high-profile former players eager to pursue a career in coaching or management, Barnes’s story raises a multitude of issues, many depressingly familiar.

How, for example, are lesser known black footballers than him expected to get their break if Barnes, arguably the most prominent black English footballer of his generation, found it so hard to get back into management?

And why should the more recent generation of black footballers, for whom the need to continue working is no longer as great as it was for their predecessors, bother subjecting themselves to such a demoralising process of rejection, when, as was the case with black players in the 1960s and 1970s, they seem to need to prove they are “ten times better” than their white counterparts?

“Black players had various stigmas to deal with in the past — that we couldn’t play in the winter, that we could only play on the wing and now it’s a similar story when it comes to management,” Cole said. “I’m in the process of doing my Uefa B licence which I should have passed later this year, but will I get an opportunity at the end of it all? I don’t know.”

Cole was speaking as part of an MUTV panel hosted by Rio Ferdinand, the United defender, who believes that it is essential black players aspiring to be managers do not allow themselves to become disillusioned.

The statistics do not inspire optimism, however. Even though just less than a quarter of professional footballers in England are black, less than one per cent of football coaching and administration posts are held by non-white candidates. Since the 1992-93 season, there have been only 31 appointments of black managers, involving only 17 different managers.

However, there was no suggestion that Barnes’s dismissal had anything to do with the colour of his skin.

Piara Powar director of football’s anti-racism campaign, Kick It Out, which launches its 2009 Weeks Of Action campaign on Thursday, and Bobby Barnes, the assistant chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, feel the situation may improve if more black people enter the boardrooms of football clubs.

At the moment, Jason Rockett, at Sheffield United, is the only black chief executive at a league club.

Cole, though, rightly points out that Premier League clubs do not seem to have had a problem appointing black foreign coaches. “I think we have this perception that black English born players can’t manage but when it’s a black foreign coach it’s different — look at Jean Tigana [the former Fulham manager] and Ruud Gullit [who managed Chelsea and Newcastle],” Cole said. “Black is black so what is the problem? We will have him, but we won’t have him.”

America serves as a source of some inspiration. The 2007 NFL Superbowlpitted two black coaches — Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts and Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears — against each other, although the prospect of two black managers contesting an FA Cup Final will still seem like a far-fetched idea to many. Barnes included.

Managing expectations

1 Jason Rockett, at Sheffield United, is the only black chief executive of the 92 professional clubs in England and Wales

2 The number of black managers presently working in professional football in England. Keith Alexander at Macclesfield Town and Paul Ince at MK Dons. Chris Hughton is only the caretaker manager at Newcastle United

17 The number of black managers in English football since the 1992-93 season

49.07 Percentage of all first-time managers who are never appointed to a further post.