FORMER Celtic manager John Barnes has defended his claim that black managers are victims to unconscious bias, insisting that it is a football-wide problem.

The former Liverpool forward took to Twitter earlier in the week to discuss the matter, pointing to his management experience at Celtic and Tranmere, and was met with denial and counter-argument from supporters who were unhappy with the assertion.

Speaking on BBC Sportsound, Barnes was adamant that such prejudice does exist within society – and, by proxy, in football – and while he accepts that Celtic’s decision to sack him was the correct one, he argued that there are only two conclusions to be drawn from the under-representation of BAME coaches in British football: either unconscious bias exists, or black men do not make good managers.

Barnes said: “Talking generally, black managers at any club – and of course it’s results that get you sacked – but for the majority of black managers, they will be sacked quicker than a failed white manager. I worked at Celtic and Tranmere so I used that as an example but as soon as you do that, that’s when the whole Twitter thing started.

“There was no question over whether I should have been sacked by Celtic or if I could have turned it around or why it went wrong. When you talk about facts, how can you prove it? You can’t, even with statistics. It would still be a coincidence and I would find it very strange that there’s not one British black manager who has been at a club longer than one or two years.

“That would suggest that if it isn’t anything to do with bias then it must be that all black managers are not good enough because they are black.

“People say you need to prove it and ask for evidence but there is no evidence. It is just a feeling that we get and statistics will suggest that. The only other reason can be that black managers can’t be good enough because of the colour of their skin.

“I’m not talking about me because people can say ‘you were rubbish at Celtic’ and I can say ‘Ok, I was rubbish at Celtic’. Are all the other black managers at all the other clubs that they have been at also rubbish?

“Never mind Celtic, every club can say the same thing. Every club can say it was the right decision that we sacked him. Celtic fans might agree with what I’m saying but they’ll say ‘not in this case’. Bournemouth fans, Crystal Palace fans, Swindon fans … every fan who has had a black manager can say the exact same thing.

“That means if Celtic fans are right then they’re all right and if they’re all right then it means that black men cannot be good managers. Every fan will say ‘I understand that but not at our club’. So, are they all right, or is it just Celtic that’s right?

"If a black manager goes to a club, they support them, they want them and there is no bias there whatsoever. When things start to go wrong, that’s how unconscious bias works.

"So when I went to Celtic there was no unconscious bias – or conscious bias – and if there was then you would not get the job in the first place. I never said that Celtic were biased against me when I went there from a racial point of view. Of course they weren’t, I was accepted with open arms.

"My experiences at Celtic had nothing to do with my race. From the first week I lost the dressing room - I never had the dressing room, I lost it on the first day. I never had it. But that had nothing to do with my colour. It's not like 'There's a black man here and we don't like him'.

"The amount of time I was given to maybe turn it around was at the end but in terms of the problems I was having at Celtic, that had nothing to do with my colour."