Black managers can be fired too
THE dismissals of Chris Hughton and Darren Moore were two of the harshest of the season. Neither were sacked, however, for being black. Indeed Moore’s club, West Brom, are still in the market for a manager and one of the names at the top of their list is Hughton. So, while Troy Townsend, head of development at Kick It Out, was understandably concerned at two high-profile black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) managers losing their jobs, his reaction to Hughton’s sacking — that the situation was at ‘worse than square one’ — was unhelpful. If club owners fear there is undue pressure to retain a BAME manager once appointed, a door that is still more ajar than open will very quickly be shut. No wonder Kick It Out swiftly apologised to Brighton for any insinuation that their judgment was racially motivated. Brighton are one of the most progressive clubs in the country and this decision, right or wrong, was solely about football. If anything, West Brom replacing Moore was more controversial — and harder to justify, given their failure to win promotion through the play-offs. We will never know if sticking with Moore would have got West Brom up, but that call wasn’t about race, either. BAME managers will stop being anomalies in our game the day they can be hired and fired as irrationally as white men. The way to return to square one is to insist on making them special cases.