Diversity off the pitch is football’s goal
AS ENGLAND celebrate a penalty shootout win, it is the shock results on the pitch – and VAR controversies – which are dominating the World Cup in Russia rather than the discrimination, hooliganism and violence predicted in the build-up.
While overt racism among fans has plagued Russian, Spanish and Italian football in recent years, English football has been actively challenging the more concealed forms of racism.
Over 25 per cent of the 3,700 professional footballers in England are black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME). Of this figure, black British footballers have accounted for approximately 15 percent of professional players since the mid-1990s. This is a relatively high number considering the black British population stands at just three per cent.
Off the field, however, the stats do not correlate. There are just six black managers out of the 92 professional English clubs – the most on record at any one time in the history of professional English football.
Only 22 out of 482 positions are held by ethnic minority individuals in senior coaching positions across the 92 professional English clubs. And, no BAME coaches are involved with the England international set-up at present.
To challenge this disparity between on-field representation and off-field exclusion, the English Football League has adopted the Rooney Rule.
The Rooney Rule makes it compulsory for all 72 EFL clubs to interview at least one BAME candidate (if an application has been received) for all managerial and first-team coaching roles.
The Rooney Rule, a policy established by America’s National Football League in 2003, aims to encourage more BAME candidates to apply for managerial and coaching roles. Fifteen years after its implementation, this policy is credited with increasing diversity within the NFL.
Encouragingly, the FA has followed suit and in January 2018 revealed they had also adopted the Rooney Rule for all coaching jobs relating to the England national team. This implementation will kick in after the World Cup.
Critics suggest it offers some communities an unfair advantage based on their ethnicity. Cries of positive discrimination and ‘reverse racism’ have been heard.
As a researcher, I set out to understand what British Asian football coaches themselves thought about this policy. British Asian football communities, arguably the most excluded within English football, are being empowered by such a policy. Therefore, you would expect the Rooney Rule to be welcomed with open arms.
Yet, the 15 coaches surveyed and the 11 interviewed were either ambivalent or supportive, while one coach strongly disagreed with its inception. The highlighted positives include that the policy can open doors, it provides an opportunity for coaches to present themselves and it challenges traditional networks of racial homogeneity.
However, it was noted that the Rooney Rule appears tokenistic. Also, some coaches suggested they would feel uncomfortable going for an interview if they suspected themselves to be the ‘Rooney Rule candidate’. And other coaches said it might do more harm than good if they were not at a genuine level to challenge for the position.
Personally, I am a supporter of the Rooney Rule. It challenges the racial
gets BAME coaches into the room and allows them to showcase their abilities. A Rooney Rule candidate is not guaranteed a job – just an interview. The successful candidate gains the position on merit, experience and ability.
The Rooney Rule alone is not the solution to the problem though. This policy must be complimented by other means. I argue that equality and diversity (or unconscious bias) training for academy personnel, coach educators and selection committees is advisable to challenge stereotypes of minority groups.
When Qatar 2022 comes around, we might see a game in which off-field representation mirrors that on the pitch.
Perhaps I am being rather optimistic, as I fully understand there is a long, long way to go before the term exclusion will be replaced by inclusion in the context of the BAME coaching and management debate.
The Rooney Rule is just one part of the jigsaw. For it to bear fruit, the other pieces – sanctions, unconscious bias training, coaching pathways – must compliment it.