ENGLAND PAVE WAY FOR THE FIRST BLACK MANAGER

FA bring in Rooney Rule to ensure ethnic minority candidates are interviewed for the top job

THE Football Association have introduced a ‘Rooney Rule’ that means at least one candidate from an ethnic minority background will be interviewed when the next England manager is appointed. The rule will also apply to the backroom staff, plus the women’s and junior teams.

In a bid to repair the damage left by the Eni Aluko discrimination storm, Wembley officials have responded with new initiatives designed to make the FA ‘a more inclusive and diverse organisation’. Chief executive Martin Glenn also announced that FA Cup prize money will be doubled and more cash donated to the grassroots game.

But yesterday’s briefing did not go entirely smoothly. Trying to explain how the FA have improved their whistle-blowing and grievance procedures, Glenn clumsily suggested a distinction needs to be made between men and women when it comes to the kind of ‘banter’ they will tolerate.

‘I think culturally what women will be prepared to put up with has been a bit different from guys,’ said Glenn.

The FA moved quickly to qualify Glenn’s remarks, insisting he does not consider anything allegedly said by former England women’s coach Mark Sampson — or any of his staff — to be ‘banter’.

They wanted the focus to be on their efforts to combat the fact that there are just five black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) managers employed by the 92 Football League clubs, with only Brighton’s Chris Hughton working in the Premier League. Glenn hopes the FA are setting an example with the Rooney Rule others will follow, even if it was only last month that the Football League revealed plans to pilot such a scheme.

‘We are there to set an example,’ said Glenn. ‘We are also quite a big employer with 28 England teams now, if you include men’s, women’s and disability. In talking to people at the Premier League and the FA, I don’t see any resistance to a Rooney Rule.’

The changes come in response to a crisis that erupted in the wake of Aluko’s allegations and concluded with the dismissal of Sampson.

Hope Powell, who is black, was the women’s team manager from 2007 to 2011 and there are currently two ethnic minority coaches working at St George’s Park. Glenn added that 13 per cent of the FA staff are BAME, which he said was above average for a UK employer.

But he accepted that a lack of opportunities for ethnic minority coaches needs to be addressed, even if the FA statement did qualify its introduction of a Rooney Rule by stating that at least one BAME candidate will be interviewed for each position ‘as long as such a candidate has applied and meets the recruitment criteria’.

With the Premier League not planning to follow the FA in introducing the rule, that could be easier said than done if ethnic minority candidates have a desire to apply to be England manager.

Glenn said he hoped more opportunities would arise but also stressed that at the FA the rule would apply ‘to football staff all round’, meaning a future manager would have to consider ethnic minority candidates when assembling a back-room team.

‘What we’re seeing now is more BAME players and what we want to do is make sure that postplaying career there’s an opportunity for them to carry on contributing, and that they feel the FA is for them,’ he said.

‘We talked a while ago about what it means to play for England. It’s not just about thumping the three lions on the chest. It’s about improving performance by making the England players feel like the set-up is more inclusive.’

Regarding changes made to the FA’s whistle-blowing procedures, Glenn said Aluko had made a contribution. ‘UK Sport specifically asked to talk to Eni and she made some very useful suggestions, which have largely been incorporated,’ he said.

‘It’s recognising that there are significant differences in women’s elite sport and men’s, and one of the things that really caught us out in the case of Eni Aluko was that we were slow to realise that; because effectively the women’s team are like employees of the FA because of the contracts.’

But what did he mean when he suggested women had a lower tolerance for ‘banter’. ‘I think it’s fair to say that what we’ve seen is there are probably some differences in what they would expect to hear or say,’ he said.

Glenn said there would be a 38 per cent increase in money going back into the game, with that figure rising to £180million per year, with an extra £9m from that pot going into grassroots.

92 clubs in the Football League.. .but just five non-white bosses