Racism and the underrepresentation of Black coaches in Elite Brazilian football

Citation

Silva D, Bastos F & Rocha C (2026) Racism and the underrepresentation of Black coaches in Elite Brazilian football. World Association for Sport Management Conference (WASM 2026), Cape Town, South Africa, 03.03.2026-06.03.2026.

Abstract
Introduction: Brazil is the country with the largest Black population outside Africa, representing more than 50% of the 203 million people (Ribeiro, 2019). Despite representing the majority of the population, Black people suffer from violations of their rights, access to housing and job market, income distribution, among other inequalities, as a result of the structural racism that exists in the country (Almeida, 2019). This population is underrepresented in politics, in public universities, and in management positions with higher salaries (IBGE, 2022). According to IBGE (2022), White people occupy 84.4% of leadership positions in the country, with Black people (Afro Brazilians and mixed-raced Brazilians) occupying 14.6%. In football, Black people also suffer from racism and discrimination. The 10th Report on Racial Discrimination in Football (Observatório da Discriminação Racial no Futebol, 2023) identified 162 cases of racism in Brazilian football in 2023, mostly involving players and, to a lesser extent, members of coaching staff. Black players also represent the majority of those who play in Series A and B of the Brazilian men's football championships, representing around 60% of the players (Silva et al., 2024). Despite this, when analyzing the positions of head coach and assistant coach in the same teams, they are underrepresented, corresponding to 12.5% and 19.3% respectively. Research problem: How does racism influence the representation of Black coaches in Brazilian men's football? Methodology: Drawing upon the Critical Race Theory (Hylton, 2009) and Cunningham's (2019) multilevel structure, semi-structured interviews are being conducted with three different groups of stakeholders of Brazilian elite football clubs: (1) football directors, (2) Black coaches and assistant coaches, and (3) sport journalists. Inclusion criteria are: (a) the football director must have participated in the Brazilian league Serie A or Serie B on any year since 2012 of a men's football club (2012 is the year when the first affirmative actions to tackle racism became law in the country); (b) the Black coach and assistant coach must have participated in the Brazilian league Serie A or Serie B for any club, on any year since 2012; (c) the sport journalist must have covered men's football in the Brazilian league Serie A or Serie B on any year since 2012; and (d) all subjects must be 18 years old or older (age of majority in Brazil). The snowball sampling technique is being used (Lune & Berg, 2017). The number of interviewees will be defined by data meaning saturation (Hennink et al., 2017). We expect a minimum of 6 and maximum of 9 per group of stakeholders, between 18 and 27 interviewees. Interviews are being conducted F2F or by virtual means, in a place agreed between the interviewer and interviewee. They are being voice recorded by the PI, in Portuguese, transcribed verbatim. Data will be analysed using reflexive thematic analysis (Clarke & Braun, 2022) . The research is based on the interpretive paradigm and rely on the ontological position of relativism and the epistemological approach of subjectivism (Scotland, 2012). Key findings: So far, 10 interviews have taken place, and additional interviews is being taken. The data analysis will be carried out until September 2025, therefore, the complete results will be presented at the Seminar.

Keywords
sport management, football, racism