Anyone who watched football in the 1970s and 1980s will know
what racism in football is all about.
They were the decades of ‘firsts’.
First black player to do this, first black player to do that. Yet there have been very few instances, other
than one or two high profile incidents, occurring since then. The issue still exists on the terraces and in
the stands, but clubs have moved on. The
2011 Census reported 87% of UK population to be white, yet approximately 25% of
players playing professional football are black or ethnic minority as clubs
have long since given up worrying about the looks of a player, preferring the
value they might bring. Which is why it
is difficult to fully believe football would be able to completely ignore a person’s
colour when they’re playing, only to have a block on them when they finish
their career.
On the face of it with Chris Powell (Huddersfield) and
Keith Curle (Carlisle) the only black managers currently employed at the helm
of any of the 92 league clubs, this would suggest a problem. However, this also highlights some people’s
continuation with trying to divide people based on their colour. In a true equal society there would be no
‘black or white’, just people. We don’t
single out ginger haired, bald, or beardy managers so should we really try and
find a problem with lack of black-skinned managers? There are plenty of people finding it hard to
get a coaching job in football, yet we are only to have sympathy for those who
are black, apparently.
If we go by 2011 Census information then only 3% of UK
population is registered as Black or Black British. So following that through 3% of 92 is 2.76
and therefore it would appear black managers are only slightly underrepresented
according to the population ratio.
However, if you consider how many black players there are then you could
easily argue against those statistics.
One factor which is being ignored is the focus is on how
many black managers there are, yet no one is considering how many black
coaches, scouts and other important staff members there are in the League.
The Rooney Rule
One suggestion is to implement ‘The Rooney Rule’ which
currently exists in American Football (NFL).
The rule was named after Dan Rooney, owner of Pittsburgh Steelers and
chairman of the league’s diversity committee.
The Steelers have a long history of giving African Americans
opportunities in leadership roles within the franchise. The aim of the rule was to make sure minority
coaches were considered for positions within the NFL teams. There is no compulsion on teams to employ a
black coach, yet they must interview at least one for any coaching
position. The rule was implemented in
2003 and supporters point to statistics which suggest there was a real problem
within the sport for ‘not trusting a black person for such an authoritarian
role’. Prior to the rule there had only
been 7 coaches employed by any of the teams from the first man in 1921 to 2003. Since the rule has been in place there have
been 13 coaches employed.
However, on closer inspection of these statistics you
must bear in mind USA barely allowed black players into the sport until the end
of the 1960’s, so to try and look back over 80 years gives a misleading slant
on the statistics.
There have been a number of football people who have
called for the rule to be implemented into the game. Gordon Taylor, Chief Executive of the PFA,
said recently the sport “has a hidden resistance preventing black managers
getting jobs”. Seems odd he’s never
voiced that opinion before, but maybe he hasn’t been asked the direct question
before. Garth Crooks, former player and
now tv pundit/interviewer, went further by accusing The FA of ‘lacking courage’
and especially singled out Greg Clarke, Chairman of the Football League,
accusing him of ‘bottling it’ when Clarke revealed he had tried to get the
matter discussed within a committee meeting but found the only director who was
sympathetic to the idea lost his seat on the board when his club was relegated.
Another former player and now radio pundit, Jason
Roberts, has also been particularly vocal in his incredulity of a lack of
motivation within the game’s authorities to change the status quo. In fact even Dan Rooney himself has said
“English football has nothing to lose” by implementing the rule. But is The Rooney Rule the solution to the
issue? Is there an issue at all?
With so many of England’s league clubs having foreign
owners can you really suggest English football chooses managers based on the colour
of their skin? Are there many black
managers throughout Europe? At the
recent World Cup how many nations had black managers?
My problem with The Rooney Rule is you automatically
single people out for the colour of their skin, whereas there may not actually
be that distinction at the moment. The
rule is racist as it singles a man out for the colour of his skin. It says
“You, you are different cos you is black. So we’re going
to treat you differently and ignore everything else about you, your attitude,
your intelligence, your ability to plan and motivate. We’re singling you out because of the colour
of your skin and we’re going to interview you.
There, that’s nice for you isn’t it?
You see, we’re giving you a real opportunity here and if and when you
get a job, you can thank us because you wouldn’t have got this job if we, as
the white man, hadn’t stepped in and changed the rules simply for you. Oh, and in 10 years’ time we can review this
and you can look back and will now owe us white folk as you wouldn’t have had
this opportunity without us. Now, run
along little black fella, and don’t forget who’s in charge.”
There you are, job done, everything in the garden is
rosy.
But is it?
For every coaching position in NFL there has been a black
person interviewed, yet barely one a year has been successful in their
application. Does that mean the problem
has been eradicated? Can the NFL truly
claim there is no racism within the selection of their coaches? If it is the rule which has allowed black
coaches to come through, why do they still need it after 10 years? If they didn’t before, surely the franchises
all now believe in the ability of any coach, no matter their colour, and so
removing the rule would mean every coach is selected on merit, wouldn’t
it? But then that’s my problem with the
issue. White people can feel they’ve
sorted the problem by giving the black man an opportunity and the black man
must feel continually thankful for it.
So much so, that there are no calls for the rule to be relaxed,
presumably for fear it would take the sport back to “the bad old days”. Racism is something which is learned and so
can equally be unlearned. Surely
franchise owners now want to employ the best candidate and if they did have a
problem, no matter how conscious they were of it, they will now be aware of the
need to show they’re inclusive not exclusive.?
If NFL is afraid to remove the rule then they’ve hardly
dealt with the underlying problem in any way, and rather proves my point of it
being a ruse for the ‘white man’ to suggest they have allowed the ‘black man’
to join their party. You need to deal
with the cause before you can enjoy the effect.
The Rooney Rule goes against looking at a person’s
ability to manage, motivate, organise and recruit, yet these are all qualities
needed for a manager in club football.
Wouldn’t Jason Roberts, Garth Crooks, Sol Campbell or Dwight Yorke serve
‘the black argument’ better by seeking careers in management rather than take
the Sky pound?
Numerous people have pointed to the dearth of black
managers in English football but no one will name names. By that I mean nobody states who the managers
are who are not being given opportunities.
Every out-of-work manager will tell you they should be in work,
regardless of their background or ethnicity.
Often ex-players will need to take over at clubs in the lower divisions
and work their way up, but even that doesn’t guarantee a smooth journey. There aren’t many Premier League clubs
willing to take a chance on an ex-player, especially English ones. So why should we be surprised if Campbell,
Roberts or Yorke aren’t taken on?
Sol Campbell accused The FA of bias based on skin-colour
when not selecting him as captain, maintaining he could’ve been captain of his
country for ‘at least 10 years’. This
was then roundly batted back as more viable alternatives had been chosen merely
illustrating Campbell may well have had sufficient qualities yet there were
others with more.
In addition to this, is Jason Roberts really saying he’d
be happy to be given a management role simply because of his skin colour? Can you imagine the press conference if he
was to be given the recently vacated Bolton job? How many times could you do that? Surely if he is unqualified and not as
capable as others, then how many clubs really want to take a chance purely
because it appeals to some people’s perception of football?
Discrimination
But if racial discrimination exists in football, is it
the only form of discrimination? I don’t
believe it is. So if the Rooney Rule sorts out any bias towards and against
people on the basis of the colour of their skin what about the discrimination
which exists in football in other areas of coaching? For example, it appears in order to get a
decent job in football you need to have been a former professional player. There are plenty of people who have achieved
their coaching badges yet do not get real opportunities because they don’t know
club owners well enough. But even
English ex-professional players struggle to get too many opportunities in the
Premier League, yet any amount of foreign ex-professionals do.
Let’s take the example of Cardiff City, they got rid of
Iain Moody as Head of Recruitment and replaced him with a mate of the owner’s
son. That’s discrimination as you or I
wouldn’t have been able to get that job even if we were qualified as we didn’t
know the owner’s son. Plenty of jobs
within football are given solely on the basis of ‘who you know’. This is where football continues to be in
conflict with wider society which has moved on from ‘nepotism’ as swathes of
employment laws have sought to remove it.
How often do you hear of a club sacking a manager and then it is suggested
that “Mr X” is their favourite candidate.
That rarely happens in the business world outside of football as
companies have to be extremely careful about whether they recruit externally as
well as internally, for vacant positions.
By the simple act of looking at statistics (two black
coaches throughout 92 clubs) on their own merits means you are not only
accusing clubs of not appointing black people based on the colour of their
skin, but equally you are accusing clubs of appointing white people simply based
on the colour of their skin and not their ability to do the job. I would like to see names being named. Come on, where are the coaches who believe
they have been turned down for a job based on the colour of their skin? There are employment laws in place now to
deal with discrimination and plenty of media outlets who would be more than
happy to take that one on, yet we never hear of anything.
Football is not an easy industry to get into unless you
know the right people and have the right connections. Take Dean Saunders, for example, he took 7
years to get his coaching badges. He sent
off applications for 25 jobs yet only heard back from 5. That can happen to black & white people
and suggests a greater problem with opportunities than simply to highlight
colour. Talk to any unemployed person in
the country and they will tell you of the soulless experience of not even
getting a reply. In the end, Saunders
got a job as Assistant Manager to Graeme Souness at Newcastle, which was
largely down to their association at Liverpool when Souness signed him to
replace Peter Beardsley. Joey Barton stated
when he did his coaching badge there was not a single black or ethnic person on
his course. Nobody is saying black or
ethnic people are not interested in becoming coaches and of course there may be
some truth in a counter argument which says some black ex-players are deciding
to “not even bother trying” for a coaching job as they believe they will be
turned down immediately. It is also
interesting to note that one of “the two”, Keith Curle, has publicly stated he
doesn’t believe he has been turned down for jobs purely for the colour of his
skin.
If you don’t believe me on that front, consider
this. Graham Rix was Assistant Manager
at Chelsea in the late 90’s. He sent to
prison for underage sex with a 15 year old girl. Yet after serving six months of his twelve
months sentence he walked back into his old job. John Sitton was caught on camera swearing at
some of his Leyton Orient players during a documentary in the mid-90’s and has
struggled to work in football again.
Transparency
During a recent discussion it was suggested the answer
maybe for clubs to make public their decisions for rejecting applicants. Laudable though this may be, in practice it
is not something which will have legs as employment lawyers will be all over
it. Clubs will be hamstrung to such an
extent they will not be able to say anything detrimental for fear of being
sued. It’ll be like employment
references where previous employers are not able to say exactly what they think
of a past employee as they will be sued for defamation with lawyers arguing the
reference has ruined the applicant’s life and they may never get accepted
anywhere.
Let’s imagine Dean Saunders applies for the Bolton job
and is turned down. Bolton then make it
public that perhaps he turned up late for the interview, was disorganised and
just wasn’t as well connected as the successful candidate. Then when the next job comes up, Saunders
doesn’t even get an interview as the next club believes he’s late, disorganised
and not well connected. This could
hamper him for years. Then of course a
club saying that about a black manager may well be accused of simply disguising
the fact they didn’t want to employ a black manager. That isn’t progress.
English football may never get past it’s obsession with
celebrity and it is undeniable many clubs believe a ‘name’ is better in charge
of their players as they can motivate by reputation. Additionally a nervous owner may feel a ‘name’
will get the fans back on their side.
This is short-term thinking in the extreme but it is one of the things
which means football remains a sport rather than a business.
Conclusion
I agree there should be more black and ethnic minority
coaches around professional football but we need people appointed to jobs on
merit rather than to try and engineer something which makes some people believe
the job has been done. Positive
discrimination is still discrimination and it is wrong. I would rather have people chosen for their
ability to do a job, regardless of the colour of their skin.
Instead of a “Rooney Rule” I would like to see The FA
work with clubs to discover if there is a problem. They don’t need to make this public, just
instigate an education programme. But as
I have already mentioned, there is bias towards and against certain candidates
already, and by simply focussing on skin colour may not completely deal with
this.
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