Major League Soccer saw an increase in racial hiring in 2018 but a slight drop in gender hiring practices, according to the latest data compiled by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports at the University of Central Florida.
The 2018 MLS Racial and Gender Report Card, compiled by the institute known as TIDES, gave MLS an A for racial hiring practices and a C+ for gender hiring. TIDES gave the league an overall grade of B+ in 2018, up from a B grade in 2017.
On the racial hiring front, MLS earned 92.5 points in 2018, up 4.3 points from 2017. Yet, the league’s gender hiring grade dipped to 76.8 points, down from 78.8 in 2017, marking two consecutive years of decline.
The TIDES report says MLS Commissioner Don Garber has created a good model for hiring in the league office but it calls on teams to do more to increase their diversity.getty images
“While we tend to do better on the racial hiring practices across the leagues, we had declines in gender hiring practices, particularly in senior positions,” said Richard Lapchick, the primary author of the study and director of TIDES. “We have a heightened sense of race in this country and it is extending into sports but I don’t think we pay as much attention to gender. In terms of hiring practices, it is not as pronounced.”
For racial hiring practices, the MLS under Commissioner Don Garber earned an A+ for league office personnel, players and assistant coaches, an A for general managers, and a B+ for team professional administration and coaches.
For gender hiring practices, MLS earned a B+ for league office employees, a C for professional administration and a D+ for senior team administration.
In the league office, 38.6 percent of all professional positions were filled by people of color while women filled 40.9 percent of those positions. Seven people of color were working as league vice presidents and 11 women held the title of vice president or higher.
At the team level, there were seven general managers of color in 2018 compared to three in 2017. But only one person of color held a team CEO/president position (Alex Leitao of Orlando City SC).
“While Major League Soccer is heavily focused on diversity and inclusion, we know that there is more work to be done and remain committed to hiring and retaining employees that reflect a multicultural workforce,” said JoAnn Neale, MLS chief administrative and social responsibility officer. “We have made a concerted effort to recruit a diversity of thought as that is what brings innovative ideas to an organization. By leveraging tactics, such as proactively recruiting outside of the sports industry, we look at how we can bring the best people and ideas to move the business forward.”
People of color at the head coaching position increased by 4.5 percent in 2018, with five of the 23 MLS teams coached by people of color.
“Garber has created a good model in the league office, but it’s at the team level where they need to emulate what is going on at the league office,” Lapchick said. “I’m glad they had an increase in head coaches of color, so any increase there is welcome.”
For the ninth consecutive season, MLS earned an A+ plus for its diversity initiatives. Among those is an internship program that in 2018 saw the league recruit women or minorities into 11 of the 19 available internship positions.
“They have created a package of initiatives that are strong and it has affected the league office in a dramatic way,” Lapchick said. “Teams should embrace those initiatives and they would see the results that everybody wants.”
Ian Thomas contributed to this story.
