"When you look at the top five leagues in the world and you look at the number of black coaches in the first or second division, it's not enough," the 1998 world champion told the BBC.
The current Crystal Palace manager is the only black man to hold this position in the Premier League, while 43% of players in English football's elite are black.
Published last week, a report by the collective The Black Footballers Partnership, which brings together a hundred black players in the football sector, shows that among the positions of managers or owners of clubs, only 1.6% are black.
"There's a lack of opportunity. Black players don't connect enough with the people who make the decisions. But most of all I think the doors aren't open to us to do what we can do and access opportunities. management positions," said Patrick Vieira.
"When I talk about management, I'm talking about team management but I'm also talking about higher levels of responsibility," he said.
"We need to be given more opportunities to show that we are as good as anyone else."
The English Football Federation introduced a diversity code in 2020 which aims to combat racial inequalities, which all Premier League clubs have adopted.
But for Les Ferdinand, the only black man to hold a director of football position in England, this code did not bring changes.
"The Federation continues to put in place initiatives but these are just words. I have been warning the federation for 30 years about the glass ceiling that black coaches face and nothing has changed," said the Times the director of football for Queens Park Rangers in London, current second division leaders.
© 2022 AFP