Re: Football Chat Thread - Euro 2012 edition : Sat Sep 29, 2012 10:46 am
100% Wire wrote:
Why is there the attitude of ''we NEED more black managers in football'' by the way? Isn't everybody supposed to be there on merit. not just for tokenism.
Its got to be a concern that the huge increase in black players in recent decades hasn't seen a corresponding increase in black managers. Clearly there would be a time lag but we're well past the stage when that could be a factor. The ratio of black managers to black players just cannot be justified.
Its instructive looking at the experience of black players and coaches in the NFL. For decades there used to be a view that "black players couldn't play quarterback". Then a few black quarterbacks such as Warren Moon dispelled that myth and very quickly black quarterbacks became commonplace. That was followed by the view "black players can't become head coaches". Again a few succesful black coaches changed that perception.
I think it only needs a couple of black football managers to have some success and we'll start to see a rapid acceleration in the number of former black players going into management.Its just getting the process going that's the problem, which is why there are calls for some form of affirmative action.
The NFL introduced the Rooney Rule to encourage the employment of black head coaches. I'm not sure that would work here, simply because the appointment of football managers rarely complies with any formal recruitment process. But surely it cannot be denied that there is a genuine problem?
