On November 13th Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink took over as the new Burton Albion Manager.
Six days later, on November 19th Malky Mackay took over as the new manager of Wigan Athletic.
Both events could have significant impact on the proposed implementation of the Rooney rule in English football.
A quarter of all players in the Premier League and Football League are black. The proportion of managers in England who are black is a long way below that figure. This is a source of much controversy and debate.
Current Premier League Managers
Arsene Wenger – Arsenal
Paul Lambert – Aston Villa
Sean Dyche – Burnley
Jose Mourinho – Chelsea
Neil Warnock – Crystal Palace
Roberto Martinez – Everton
Steve Bruce – Hull City
Nigel Pearson – Leicester City
Brendan Rodgers – Liverpool
Manuel Pellegrini – Manchester City
Louis van Gaal – Manchester United
Alan Pardew – Newcastle United
Harry Redknapp – Queens Park Rangers
Ronald Koeman – Southampton
Mark Hughes – Stoke City
Gus Poyet – Sunderland
Garry Monk – Swansea
Mauricio Pochettino – Tottenham Hotspur
Alan Irvine – West Bromwich Albion
Sam Allardyce – West Ham United
None of the above are black.
Keith Curle, Chris Powell and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink are the only black managers in the top four divisions of English football.
A solution being proposed is the implementation of the Rooney rule used in American Football. The NFL decided that they had a problem with a lack of black coaches. In the 80 years prior to the rule there had been six black coaches in the NFL. The Rooney rule states that at least one minority coach is interviewed every time that a head coach role becomes available. Since 2003 there have been 13 minority coaches appointed (at the time of writing). In 2008 Mike Tomlin became the first black coach to win the Super Bowl with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
So, problem solved?
Except this doesn’t really handle the problem as it is perceived.
When Malky Mackay was appointed Wigan manager an investigation into alleged racist comments made via text message remained on going. Wigan chairman Dave Whelan felt the need to defend his new manager but ended up making comments that in turn required investigation. The media decried this as further evidence that better education is required of those in football and to hasten the Rooney rule arriving.
The Rooney rule uses the word ‘minority’. I used the word black. Indeed the media generally uses the word black when discussing the Rooney rule. This is where our history and our eyes blind us. When looking at a football pitch we can see the black players clearly and history tells us that there is a very good chance that they are English. We see the white players and there is a very good chance they are English. Of course this is not true, there is now more chance that they are from South America or mainland Europe. If we see Asian players our brains tell us they are not English, because English Asians are not interested in football. Another falsehood. To complicate matters further, those white players could also be from a minority. If they are Jewish you are not likely to be able to tell from their skin while sat in a stand or watching on television.
Demographic of UK (based on census figures)
White – 87%
Black British – 3%
Asian Indian – 2.3%
Asian Pakistani – 1.9%
Mixed – 2%
Rest = Other
If one of the reasons for a desire for the Rooney rule is a form of proportional representation where football looks like the population then the Premier League should have these numbers
White – 17.4
Black British – 0.6
Asian Indian – 0.46
Asian Pakistani – 0.38
Mixed – 0.4
Other – 0.76
Eight of the managers in the Premier league are English. They are therefore a statistical minority when compared to non English managers. Yet, if you take nationalities of managers as a whole, English is the number one, the majority. Portugal, France, Argentina, Chile, Wales, Spain, Northern Ireland and Uruguay all only have one. British is an even clearer majority, up to twelve. Yet if this is your consideration then those with none are quite obviously under represented. The Rooney rule does not address nationality, only creed. It is not a factor taken into consideration in the NFL, there has never been a non American head coach. They do not have that factor to contend with.
It is apparent that we need to be certain what we are looking to represent. Is it the globe itself? Surely impossible in terms of managers, there are more nations than available jobs. Is it the population? If so then the focus on black is clearly unfair on the other minorities. Or is it those playing the game itself? The twenty five percent who are black. Yet we should also question this, how many of those fall into the black British category?
There were no great celebrations when Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink took the Burton Albion job. Though he is clearly black he is not British. Hasselbaink was not who the supporters of the Rooney rule had in mind. Nor would be Frank Rijkaard or Ruud Gullit. The people in their thoughts would have been Paul Ince, Chris Hughton or Jason Roberts.
Roy Hodgson is is 67. It is doubtful that he will be England manager beyond the next World Cup. Who replaces him? It is unlikely that it will be a minority manager as the pool is so small at present. Yet the pool for English managers is also small. Just eight in the top division in England. How many of them get to compete at the top level in club competition?
In the last decade the English teams playing in the Champions League and their managers have been –
Manchester United – Sir Alex Ferguson, David Moyes
Arsenal – Arsene Wenger
Liverpool – Brendan Rodgers, Rafael Benitez
Tottenham Hotspur – Harry Redknapp
Manchester City – Manuel Pellegrini, Roberto Mancini
Chelsea – Jose Mourinho, Avram Grant, Luis Filipe Scolari, Guus Hiddink, Carlo Ancelotti, Andre Vilas Boas, Roberto Di Matteo
Of this extensive list, only one has been English, Harry Redknapp. Quite simply, the best jobs in English football do not go to English managers. The proving ground for the next England manager, assuming that he will be English, is the Championship or mid to lower regions of the Premier League. Managers like Sean Dyche, Garry Monk, Sam Allardyce, Steve Bruce and Alan Pardew do not get the luxury of working with the best players, having the biggest budget and virtual assurance of being at the sharp end. They have to scrap and claw for seventh at best.
Does this matter? It depends on how you view football. Does the Premier League exist as it’s own detached entity? As the NFL does. The NFL is not in competition with anyone but itself. College football feeds it and then there is no where else to go. In football there is. Does the Premier League exist to feed the England national team? Probably not, but it does help. Or should help. The next England manager should have experience of the highest available level. Roy Hodgson has the strongest CV of any Englishman since Bobby Robson. Experience in various countries, with different national teams, he has, as the cliche goes, seen it and done it. Except in England. He did get the job at one of the clubs listed above but Liverpool were going through one of the toughest periods in their history. Who will be the next English manager to get a top job in England? Based on recent patterns, no one. They will not even get near an interview.
Which is where the Rooney rule plus comes in. As well as tackling the inequality faced by minorities there is an opportunity to help English football. The Rooney as used in American football states that one minority coach should be interviewed per job available. If applied to the Premier League that could mean Ruud Gullit receives twenty phone calls to tick a box. Or extend to the football league, 92 phone calls.
The system could be expanded to mean that clubs have to interview one minority manager AND one English manager. Of course there would be ways round it, but the way round it could mean that Paul Ince is interviewed for the Manchester United job. Something that would be almost unthinkable at present. Of course from there the manager would have to prove he was the right man. That Sean Dyche is the right man for Chelsea. That Garry Monk is the right man for Arsenal. That Sam Allardyce is the right man for Liverpool. They may not be, but they may also be. From there they could be the right man for England and the barrel may have more in it than what is scraped off the bottom.
This might feel like a fanciful notion, but 15 years ago no one thought a black coach could win the Super Bowl. Mike Tomlin and the man who hired him, Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, proved that it can be done.
What is the Rooney rule? -http://talksport.com/football/what-rooney-rule-and-should-it-be-implemented-english-football-141004117135
Uk demographic – http://www.indexmundi.com/united_kingdom/demographics_profile.html
Steelers hire Mike Tomlin – http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2738834