John Barnes has stated his opinion that racism is still rife in English football, despite the attempt to combat it, and that he believes it has prevented him from getting another job since being sacked by Tranmere Rovers back in 2009.
"A white manager loses his job and gets another job, he loses his job, he gets another job. Very few black managers can lose their job and get another job," said Barnes.
"What I can judge it from is by looking at society. How many black people are there in the higher echelons of any industry? We can talk about journalism, we can talk about politics. So why should football be any different?"
Barnes endured a poor four month spell at Tranmere, a job which came after posititons at Celtic and his native Jamaica around the turn of the century. The Celtic job ended with an embarrasing Scottish Cup defeat to Inverness, which led to suggestions that he wasn't ready for a job in management at that time, claims which Barnes rebuffed.
"Well, if it comes now at 51, I don't think it will be any different. It's more to do with the perception of my ability to do the job, because there's a certain perception of who can make a good manager."
Barnes was speaking to ITV ahead of the show 'John Barnes: Sports life stories' which will be shown on ITV4, on Tuesday evening.