Cyrille Regis is proud to be one of the first generation of black players who helped smash the racial taboos in English football.

It is thanks in a large part to players such as Regis, along with Brendon Batson and Laurie Cunningham, who famously formed the “Three Degrees” at West Bromwich Albion in the late 1970s, that black players are now judged solely on their ability.

Racial imbalances still exist in the game, however, with Chris Houghton, the Norwich City manager, the only black man at the helm in England’s top four divisions after the sacking of Chris Powell by Charlton Athletic last month.

Regis, now a thriving football agent, remains confident that more black managers will occupy hot seats at the 92 Barclays Premier League and Sky Bet Football League clubs in the not-too-distant future.

But he is keen to emphasise that forging a career in the increasingly cut-throat occupation of football management is a tough proposition nowadays regardless of colour.

“Getting more black managers through the door is the next level now,” said Regis, who is visiting Bermuda as part of the United Nations International Day of Remembrance for Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

“You have to do your coaching badges, you have to network, you have to study the game and you have to put yourself up for interviews. Hopefully, in the years to come, we will see some more black managers in work.”

Despite a spell on the coaching staff at The Hawthorns, Regis said that he had never seriously considered pursuing a managerial career.

He is, however, a firm supporter of calls for the game to embrace the NFL’s positive discrimination “Rooney Rule”, which would require professional clubs to shortlist at least one ethnic minority candidate when making an external managerial appointment.

“Management is not for me, I’m a football agent looking after players, giving them the right advice and helping them negotiate the right contracts,” said the former England striker, who took charge of the Cyrille Regis XI against the Clyde Best XI in a charity celebrity game at the weekend.

“It would be nice to see someone like Shaun Goater [who applied for vacancies at Bury and Scunthorpe United this season] in management, but it’s tough — not just for black players trying to get into management, but for white players, too.

“There’s only 92 clubs and it’s tough out there. You have to keep ploughing on, educating yourself, try to get experience somewhere — at a youth academy or in the non-Leagues — and hope the door opens for you.

“It might help if the Rooney Rule comes in, but at the moment it hasn’t, so you have to keep working at it to give yourself the best chance.”

The 56-year-old was inspired as a youngster by Best, who pioneered a trail as one of the first prominent black footballers in the late 1960s at West Ham United, overcoming vitriolic racism even from his own supporters.

Regis, too, played a hugely important role in breaking down football’s racial barriers, although he admits that he was not aware at the time of the positive effect that his on-the-pitch exploits were having on the next generation of black players.

“When you’re a footballer, you’re just concentrating on playing well, trying to get in the side and then staying in the side. It’s only when former players such as Ian Wright, Dwight Yorke and John Fashanu, the second generation, say, ‘You inspired me.’

“I guess the likes of Pelé, Eusébio and Clyde Best inspired players like me.

“It’s nice to know that your exploits on the pitch influenced the generation that followed. Right now, it’s great that black players are judged on how good they are.”

The great and the good of Bermuda football turned out for the charity match at Somerset Cricket Club, a venue that Regis played at in his only previous visit the Island when Coventry City took on Middlesborough in a mid-season friendly in 1989.

Best’s side enjoyed an entertaining 5-4 win over Regis’s team, with Zane DeSilva, the politician, Dean Minors, the former Bermuda cricketer and youth-team footballer, Pierre Smith, of North Village, Bermuda women’s striker Shuntae Todd and Marvin Belboda, the former Devonshire Colts forward, netting for the winners.

Aaliya Nolan bagged a brace for Regis’s side, whose other goals came from her Jessica Furtado, her Bermuda team-mate, and Anthony Rocker, the Dandy Town defender.

“It was great to be part of this celebration and it was great to manage the team,” added Regis, who hopes it will not be too long before more black managers are prowling the touchline just as he did at Somerset at the weekend.