JOHN Barnes dipped his foot into the dangerous waters of racism this week.

It is perhaps not surprising that he has strong opinions on the issue of racism in football after the terrible abuse he received from some England supporters because of the colour of his skin.

But his accusations that those who appoint football managers display "sub-conscious racism" are ill-judged.

He said: "From an athletic point of view there will be black people because athletically we are equal. From a managerial perspective it's more to do with the intellectual aspect of it and I don't think we are regarded as intellectually equal. If you want to talk about racism, I think it is a sub-conscious racism.

"I don't think anyone goes out to say I don't like black people and they're not going to be a manager'.

"It's not that he won't give him a job because he's black, it's because he's not up to the job. Why is he not up to the job? Because he's black. Of course it's an issue."

Barnes is accusing the people who form the boards of directors of football clubs, who are mainly white, of showing a degree of racism by not appointing black managers.

If I were on one of those boards of directors, I would be incensed with Barnes over the implication.