New figures on the numbers of black and ethnic minority (BME) football coaches employed at professional clubs have shown that only 4% of the available positions are occupied by BME managers, despite 25% of players being from BME backgrounds.

One year on the publication of the Fare and Sports People's Think Tank (SPTT) Ethnic Minorities in Coaching in Elite Level Football report, which addressed the underrepresentation on BME elite managers in England, a follow-up report found only 23 out of 552 top coaching roles are held by BME people.

There are six black managers at the 72 Football League clubs.

Jason Roberts, former Blackburn Rovers striker and founder of SPTT, said the figures were worrying and showed that despite increased focus on the issue football compared poorly with other industries in tackling the root of the problem.

Dr Steven Bradbury, of Loughborough University, carried out last year's inaugural study, which found there were just 19 BME managers and coaches at elite level across all 92 professional football clubs in the English leagues.

This year's concluded that "a form of institutional discrimination" was continuing to limit opportunities.

These findings represent the second of five proposed annual reviews of the levels of BME coach representation to be undertaken between September 2014 and September 2018. These annual reviews are intended to measure the demographic diversity of the coaching workforce of professional football and to monitor any upward or downward trends in the levels of BME coach representation over time.

Days after the launch of the report the English FA announced they will invest more than £1.4m over the next five seasons to help more coaches from BME communities develop through to the elite level.

The coach bursaries will provide funding for around 80% to 90% of the total course costs at UEFA A and B, pro licence and advanced youth award levels.

The investment also includes three full-time fixed-term appointments each season which will see coaches gain experience working within the FA’s technical division setup, including England development teams.