The Rooney-Rule

Yes there is

If you interview a black candidate of minimum criteria, but not a white candidate of minimum criteria, because some rule is forcing that scenario, then that's what we call POSITIVE DISCRIMINATION

The flip side is that, having screwed over a generation by not doing what I said (increasing the opportunity and quality of coaching facilities to all), you're forcing diversity rather than making it a viable and successful option.

 

Have voted no. Do realise that a problem exists but positive discrimination is, to me, as bad as negative discrimination.

If you go for the Rooney rule why should it be restricted to "colour" and not age or sexual orientation etc. Best person for the job should be the deciding factor. I appreciate that isn't always the case but bringing in an obligatory candidate isn't the solution, it is as is always the case education.

Lets concentrate on educating everyone and then we, in time, should lose discrimination. Yes it's a long term solution but short term solutions don't work fairly and equitably. Substituting one type of discrimination for another isn't the answer.

 

One of the aspects of the whole system is that a lot of managers have come from being players, they weren't though the cream of the crop, the top flight players, they had careers less illustious, cut short by injury and didn't make the big bucks of the time, this was also a period when there were less ethnic minorities playing. The trend now seems to be as well that most if not all of the top flight players in the PL of the past 10 years or more choose to take the easy route of punditry or commentating on the game rather than the hard graft that comes of management, Kamara tried and now sits on the sofa, Collymore, Wright and many more coloured players comment on the game when they could if they had the motivation try in management. You also have to consider that when the stat of how many coloured players there are in the top flight leagues is trotted out that there is a significant difference compared to America, a substantial number of these players are foreign nationals who will leave England through transfer or may relocate abroad when their careers are over removing some potential furture managers from the game. American throwing, running with and sometimes kicking the ball rarely has foreign players and has a massive feeder system with school, college and university have a far more extensive sports programme with the prerequisite development of coaching and other staff, ex players stay within the USA and if they wish to pursue a career in the management of the sport have more chances to develop at the lower levels progressing upwards to the elite level. The teams at the elite level because of the whole feeder system from school upwards and the closed rosta of teams in the competitions do not live in the world that our elite football clubs do, if the coaching team at the Miami Dolphins screw it up they have a bad season, they don't face relegation from the elite and the major loss of revenue, they wont end up like Portsmouth did in our system, they also get pushed up higher in the draft system getting a better pick of the players comming in from the feeder system. The Rooney rule works for the American system to an extent, the rest of the world tends to operate team sports on the league system where the failure of the manager/coach has serious consequences beyond just being a bad season, there are also less opportunities for managers to develop in a safety net environment that the America system provides with the massive sporting impetous of the educational establishment.

To me the way forwards is not through positive discrimination, the Premier League, Championship, FA and all the elite clubs should get together and build an academy and training system that is far more extensive than currently exists to train and develop the future managers, as part of this they could encourage ethnic minorities to join the scheme, they would still face the rigors of the job and the need to produce results but at least they would do this as well trained and developed as possible. The best way forwards is to aim for excellence for all rather than lowering the bar and encouraging mediocrity.

 

Did you actually read my post or just latch onto that bit at the beginning? If a similar rule was in place here, no-one is being discriminated against in actuality- the hypothetical white manager of 'minimum criteria' who didn't get an interview wouldn't have got an interview anyway. And as far as the top clubs are concerned, a black manager with 'minimum criteria' might be interviewed, but they wouldn't get it anyway. No-one is getting shafted.

The main point of my post though which you ignored was suggesting a different system- focussing only on the appointment of novice managers. Unless you believe that white people are inherently better at managing that black people, then you have to accept that aspiring black managers are being discriminated against at this level. These rules are not about positive discrimination, they're about combatting the tangible negative discrimination which is actually happening, right now, evidenced by the statistics.

Aspiring black managers follow exactly the same career path as white players, but clubs apparently seem to have the perception of black managers being 'risky', and almost always go with a white guy with no more experience whatsoever. You can 'increase the opportunity and quality of coaching facilities to all' all you want, but if clubs simply aren't giving a chance to rookie black managers then what's the point?