Birmingham 2022: Ama Agbeze and Geoff Thompson appointments set to improve diversity

Black former international athletes Ama Agbeze and Geoff Thompson are set to join the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games board, the BBC has learned.

Last year, the organising committee was criticised for its near entirely white board and executive management team.

Local politicians had demanded more black and ethnic minority (BAME) members to better reflect the West Midlands region.

But the appointments of ex-England netball captain Agbeze and five-time world karate champion Thompson are expected to be confirmed this week.

Born in Birmingham, Agbeze led her country to a historic gold medal at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in 2018. A qualified lawyer, she became an athlete representative on the board of Commonwealth Games England last year.

Youth activist Thompson – one of the country’s first leading black sports administrators – recently became a new non-executive director at the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA).

Birmingham 2022 found itself embroiled in controversy last year when it emerged that just one of the 20 members of its board of directors and executive management team was not white.

Commonwealth Games Federation president Dame Louise Martin stepped down from the board to help improve representation, a move welcomed by the government, which pledged “more changes”.

Barbados-based Sandra Osborne QC took Martin’s place on the board, while civil servant Hiren Dhimar then became a third BAME director.

Further vacancies have been created with the resignations of Jonathan Browning and Zara Hyde Peters, allowing for the appointment of Agbeze and Thompson.

The upheaval has not stopped there. Last week David Grevemberg, the chief executive of the Commonwealth Games Federation – and another board member of Birmingham 2022 – announced he was stepping down, less than 18 months before the event.

Last year, research showed BAME people accounted for just 5.2% of board members across 130 UK Sport and Sport England-funded organisations. The government is considering setting diversity targets as part of a review of the Sports Governance Code.