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Former National Basketball Association player John Amaechi believes too many sports administrators are “anti-intellectual and emotionally illiterate”.

Amaechi, who was the first openly gay NBA player, is now a psychologist who runs the Amaechi Basketball Centre in Manchester.

Making the keynote address at the Central Council of Physical Recreation’s (CCPR) annual conference, he said: "We are producing people in sport at the coaching level and the administrative level who are anti-intellectual and emotionally illiterate.”

He added that, too often, sport "indulges a hierarchy of bigotry" and promotes a culture of "rank anti-intellectualism".

Amaechi went on to slam the "raging blazerati" of British sports administration. "People have existed in sport as if they have tenure,” he continued. “Even when they disappear from one organisation they appear in another at equal or greater status. The status quo is kind to some people – it allows for the bigots among that group and the incompetent among that group to maintain power."

He urged governing bodies to take positive steps to make themselves more representative: "You can't wait for the dinosaurs to die. They've