It’s a perfect rule for England ... but would be a disaster for our top clubs

SToKE are looking for a manager. They play Manchester United on Monday. That never happens at the FA. That is why they should always have led the way on the Rooney Rule. That it took the calamitous handling of the Eni Aluko-Mark Sampson dispute to bring this change about is unfortunate to say the least, but if it lights the way for a generation of black and ethnic minority coaches, then at least there has been a positive outcome. Before chief executive Martin Glenn begins preening, however, it must be accepted that the FA’s circumstances are very different from that of clubs; less immediate, with a favourable timescale in which to make appointments. Club managers are dismissed in the hurly-burly of a season, and usually amid crisis. Stoke sacked Mark Hughes having lost to Coventry in the FA Cup, in 18th place, having won twice since october. It is pure good fortune that their next game is on Monday. It could have been last night, or on Saturday at 12.30pm. There is very little time to get a replacement. If Stoke know that they want, say, Martin o’Neill, any compulsory interview of a BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) candidate would merely delay the process, and have no real worth. Indeed, it could be counterproductive if a decision has already been made on who gets the job. Say Stoke ask to interview Keith Curle, at Carlisle, to satisfy the Rooney Rule. Curle would be interested in a step up from League Two, no doubt, and would ask permission to talk. Yet this could damage his relationship with his employers and fans — and for what, if his interview is merely a box-ticking exercise? Equally, the Rooney Rule can be applied in NFL franchises because there is no relegation in major American sport. Stoke, Crystal Palace, West Ham, Swansea, West Brom and Everton have all sacked their managers this season, to avoid falling a division, a cost measured in tens of millions. There is a huge difference in what can be achieved when the pressure is immediate. It isn’t, invariably, in international football. That is why the FA should always have been leading the way in the consideration of

black managers, coaches and executives (for when we really know we have arrived is when a black man is sitting in Glenn’s chair, or Greg Clarke’s). Yes, there are exceptions. Sam Allardyce was sacked, unexpectedly, a week before England were due to meet up for a home match with Malta. Yet it was more than two months before Gareth Southgate got the job on a permanent basis — plenty of time for BAME candidates to be considered. Anyway, these were special circumstances. If all goes to plan, international positions are terminated at the end of a tournament or qualifying campaign with months to find a successor. This applies at agegroup level, too. That is the one advantage an England manager has: time. The FA have time, too, and it is right that they should use it to consider every suitable candidate. Yet who does the considering? FA executives are just as white as FA coaches. Will the Rooney Rule apply to the next chief executive, the next chairman; or will the ability to hire and fire still be the preserve of the traditionally empowered? That was the difference so smartly highlighted by the comedian Chris Rock, comparing Shaquille O’Neal of the Los Angeles Lakers with the franchise owner Jerry Buss, now deceased. ‘Shaq is rich,’ he said. ‘The white man who signs his cheque is wealthy.’ He’s right: more black managers might catch a break, if it wasn’t still the preserve of white folk to give them one.