Victor Anichebe has expressed his desire of owning a football team in the future, but admitted that he still wants to play football in England right now.
The 32-year-old spoke earlier this week about racism he suffered during his time at Everton and the need for education to be able to stamp down on abuse in the future.
And, in an in-depth interview with Sky Sports, the striker has now opened up on the need for more Black, Asian and minority ethnic representation at boardroom level in the sport.
Anichebe has admitted he would be interested in owning a club and sees it as a way to start a change.
He said: “I would like to go down that route of owning a team.
“I do have a group of people that are quite wealthy guys and together we could come together and go down that route.
“I spoke to Tim Howard, who is part of a group that bought a club in America and they also own a club here [in the UK].
“I don’t see why we can’t all come together [as players] and buy clubs.
“I do think that is another way to really affect change.
“Instead of wanting change, we can be the change ourselves.
“We can place ourselves in those positions.
“We have to have a seat at the table to really effect change.
“We can’t try and affect change from the outside and looking in.
“I have seen a couple of players say they want to become CEOs or sporting directors and I think that is what we need to do.
“We need to aspire to these positions.
“But also, when we aspire to these positions [we then need] to get an opportunity to be in these positions.
“All of us together have a big role to play.
“I just feel like people are not going to stop until change happens, whatever that looks like.
“I do feel like a lot of people want change, not just black people [but] I feel white people as well.
“Right now it feels like we are loosing momentum.
“It feels like nothing is really happening.”
The former Everton man has not played competitive football in over two years after a brief spell in China with Beijing Enterprises, having played in the Premier League for Sunderland and West Brom following his departure from Goodison Park in 2013.
But, despite that, he is still keen to have another spell in England and spoke about his trial with Doncaster Rovers last year in particular.
Anichebe said: “I feel hungry to play but only if the right opportunity comes.
“I am working on a lot of other things right now but if the right opportunity comes then I would definitely play.
“Last year I trained with my friend Darren Moore at Doncaster.
“It was really good to be in and around [the team atmosphere].
“It took me about a week to get the fitness but I felt good.
“I am looking forward, if the right opportunity comes, to getting back into it.
“I have had a few options to go abroad but I feel I want to play in England.
“I feel like I have unfinished business in England.
“I would prefer to stay in England for another two years.
“Right now is the fittest I have ever been.
“We will see if a good opportunity comes and I’ll assess if I actually want to take it and we’ll go from there.”