Aameer Murphy Kstantin will be back for a trial with Chelsea in August
"Yellow, purple or black - if they're good enough, I'll pick them," declared the England manager, Ron Greenwood, in 1978 when he selected Viv Anderson as the first black player for England.
Thirty-one years on, what about the brown?
This weekend Chelsea tried to sow the seeds of a solution to that problem with their "Search for an Asian Soccer Star" contest, held at their state-of-the-art training centre in the Surrey countryside.
Forget Britain's Got Talent. This was all about British Asians' Got - Footballing - Talent.
The club advertised on its website and was besieged by more than 700 applications, of which 450 were invited down to Cobham to show off their skills.
There were three age groups - under-12s, under-13s and under-14s. Each day was devoted to an age group and each day a winner was chosen to have a trial with Chelsea later in the summer.
If they're then deemed good enough, they'll be invited to join the club's youth set-up.
I went along on Saturday to watch about 130 under-12s put through their paces.
Initially, it was meant to be for kids from in and around London, but this was an opportunity that had driven parents to some extraordinary lengths.
I asked Jagatheson Singaravelu how far he and his son, Yodishtra, had come.
"Melbourne", he replied. Perhaps he meant Melbourne in Chelmsford? No. They'd flown 21 hours from Australia just to be there!
"It was a long flight but it is worthwhile because chances like this are very hard to come by in a lifetime," Jagatheson told me.
A fast-track scheme into a big club targeted specifically at British Asians? It was met with a wide chorus of approval from players, coaches and parents.
"I think it's excellent what Chelsea are doing here. It's a great initiative. I think there's not enough Asians in the game," said Jas, who left Warwick at 0600 BST with his wife to bring their two sons along.
The British Asian community has been trying to address the problem of under-representation in football for decades.
Jagatheson Singaravelu and his son, Yodishtra, flew in from Australia
Only two British Asians have ever played in the Premier League - Michael Chopra and Zesh Rehman - and at present there are none. In the Football League there are just a handful.
"There's a big Asian community in England and when you look at the number of professional players who come from that, you've got to think we're not doing enough," Chelsea's chief executive, Peter Kenyon, told me.
And the boys seemed happy with Chelsea's attempts to give them a leg-up in the beautiful game.
"I thank Chelsea because it's a chance for all of us kids to show ourselves, to have a chance to get into Chelsea," one told me.
I had noticed he was wearing a Manchester United shirt. Was this event just a PR stunt to increase Chelsea's Asian fan base?
Kenyon strongly disagreed. "This is not a one-off," he assured me. "It's a real commitment. We've got 10 community projects that we are also going be involved in this year. I reject totally that it's a cynical marketing ploy."
And the chosen one?
Twelve-year-old Aameer Murphy Kstantin from London had caught the scouts' eyes and also finished top of the tests.
How does it feel to have won the opportunity of a lifetime? "Very, very, good because I've never won anything this big before," he said. "I was trying to do my hardest and challenge myself."
With his trial scheduled for August, I asked him where he was going to go from here. "Try my hardest to make it as a professional," he replied unwaveringly.
I didn't doubt him.
You can hear Paul's report at 1230 and 1800 BST on Tuesday on the BBC Asian Network on DAB digital radio, Digital TV (Sky 0119, Freeview 709, Virgin Media 912) or online via the BBC iplayer.
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