The Football Manager, the man who picks the team, dictates the style of football and sometimes is even the face of the club. However controversy has reared its ugly head once more with the question, where are the black managers in top flight football? Or even more so, where are the black managers in football all together? Off the top of your head how many black managers can you name currently with a team and without? Because before I searched into it I thought that there would be at least one in each level of English football. Alarmingly, I was completely wrong.
At the start of last season there were only 5 black managers employed out of the 92 opportunities within the top 4 flights in England. The main question however, is why? Why are there so few black managers in England? Recent statements from Ex-England defender Sol Campbell would have you believe that the issue is that the owners of clubs and the suits at the FA are racist and have an agenda against black players and black managers. On the other hand the FA have released a statement arguing that the main issue is that the few black managers that are in the game are simply not good enough at their jobs, neither sides really add up or have enough evidence to back their points.
If we look at the argument that the world of football is racist then we need evidence on this and how do we do this? We look at cases of racism in football, and just for this articles sake I am only looking at racism within English football. Looking at racism cases within English football, the situation has improved hugely over the past 10 years. Previously racism in English football was really handled let alone looked into. Now however as soon as a racist complaint is placed, an investigation is started, this was not the case when players like Stan Collymore and Garth Crooks were abused by fellow players and their own fans. Ten years ago, Millwall were the first club to be punished for racial abuse coming from their fans, which led to radical change in how racism from the fans was handled, as shown in 2009 when John Euell was abused from a Stoke fan whilst he was on the substitutes bench. The fan was dragged out of the ground, banned for life from the Britannia and fined. In the wake of the incident managers came in to back the decision, Harry Redknapp even came in and stated "That is disgusting, there's no place for that in the game. Surely we can't have that sort of behaviour now? Anyone who does it should be put in prison, not banned from football. Stick them where they belong, in the nut-house. It's wrong." Ten years previous and people would barely turn their heads, the way racism is handled has come leaps and bounds and that is why I struggle to agree with Sol's view that racism is the key part in the lack of Black Managers.
However this doesn't mean that racism has no part in the decisions. Due to the older age of most owners, racism was most likely the normality when they were in their youth, and have grown up around it. This is not an excuse, it is a whole new world and just because it used to be like that does not mean it is acceptable today. Some owners who have those tendencies will most likely refuse to look into hiring a black manager, and whilst previously this may have gone under the radar, now that the issue is under the microscope, we are starting to see that potentially teams could be looking past black managers due to the boardroom. This leads me to a potential solution. In Gridiron, or American Football, there is a rule known as the Rooney Rule. The rule states that if there is a vacancy within a coaching team at least one black coach has to be interviewed for the opportunity, a similar rule has been put forward by members of the FA as way of beating this covert racism. Whilst at first glance this looks like a good idea, by allowing this opportunity for Black managers to be interviewed for more club roles when before they may have been overlooked may cause more black people to become involved. However there are two key flaws to this rule. Keiron Dyer and Titus Bramble have before expressed disapproval of allowing black managers this free chance at any job interview just because they are black, Titus went on to say "At the moment, I think the Rooney Rule is a disgrace, I think it’s disgraceful that someone might be shortlisted for the job just because of their skin colour. You could say it’s just as bad being given a job because of your skin colour as it is not being given a job. My skin colour certainly wasn’t a problem for Ipswich at any stage, either as a player or a coach. I think they have employed me because of what I’ve achieved in my career as a player."Even if the Rooney rule is implemented, who do you interview for the roles at clubs like Chelsea, Arsenal or Liverpool? Could you really see Chris Hughton honestly being interviewed for the role at Chelsea and having a chance when he compares his CV to the other managers brought in for interviews? Linking back to the statement from Kieron Dyer, If the Rooney rule is in place, is there a really a point in going to an interview which you are only getting because of your skin colour, and not your managerial honours? All fair points.
Flipping the coin now and moving on from the race issue, the other side feel that skin colour never was or has been the issue. Instead the issue is the lack of managerial examples to show off to the younger black males who might want to become managers at the end of their careers or from the start. I am just going to come out with this now, I struggle to agree with this point, whilst I can understand the idea that because there is a lack of black managers, it means that black people might struggle to have someone in the occupation they can relate to who has been successful. When I ask myself which managers do I look up to, I think of José Mourinho, Mark Hughes and Glenn Hoddle, I struggle to think of a black manager I could see as being successful, only Chris Hughton falls into that category for me. This doesn't mean that the lack of interest from the black community is the reason why there is such few black managers, but in my opinion, it all comes back to a lack of support at grassroots and entry levels. The FA are no longer in the position where they can shrug off the calls for more black managers, Greg Dyke already tried this and has been crucified for trying to say there is no issue. Once again the pathetic attempt the FA has in Grass roots football appears, and in my opinion is the reason why there are only 2 Black managers currently employed in the top four flights of English football. The FA needs to encourage young black men or retiring footballers to take their coaching badges, I am not saying give them an easier ride, management is a tough career, but there needs to be much more encouragement in place to get the black community into management and not just out on the playing field.
Some at the FA have also stated that the lack of black managers is due to the lack of managerial ability from the ones we see in the public eye. Originally I scoffed at this point, but upon second looking, it has merit to the argument. Looking into the win percentages of the 5 managers in charge of clubs last year, and as well as this adding Keith Curle, current Carlisle manager, to the mix I have seen that none of these managers, except Chris Hughton, have had a win rate of more than 50% at any club, the closest being Keith Curle with 45%. Anything below 40% as an average when you add all their win percentages at each of their clubs up is below average, bordering on poor. Only Chris Hughton and Chris Powell have 40% or more. On paper this point then makes sense, if black people are looking at black managers who are struggling to be successful, why would they want to be a manager, too bad the FA are not telling us everything. Most of these managers have taken on poor teams who they need to rebuild which will therefore mean they are prepared to lose more than win, Paul ince being at Blackpool meant he had to build a squad around his son Tom Ince. Keith Curle has had to rejuvenate an out of form Carlisle side and bounce back to league one and even Chris Hughton has spent most of his career at teams he has had to fix, most famously guiding Birmingham to 4th in the championship in 2011-12 season as well as a narrowly missing out on a round of 32 place by one point in the Europa League. So by the FA saying because they stats are bad, they aren't giving you the whole picture, and more importantly are trying to make sure they don't have to fork more out on Grass roots management.
I feel that the issue comes from the entry level, any person can do their coaching badges, any person can get involved in football, but the main problem is there is a lack of encouragement from the FA, as well as from groups like Kick it out and Players association to lead retiring black players onto management. If the current black managers also put their eggs into the same basket they could easily start a movement to help black men to move into a career in football management. For now it looks like we have to stick with Keith Curle and Chris Powell as our black managers, the FA have launched a committee to find the solution for what luck that may do and has already pledged to help black managers into jobs, but if this means implementing a rooney rule like they have proposed, does that really help? Finally I think we have to really look out into Europe and see managers like Frank Rijkaard, Patrick Kluivert, Ruud Gullit, Jean Tigana and Claude Makelelé and realise they are making the steps to improve the place of black managers, so to does the FA, racism will always play a some sort of part in this issue, but it is the FA's Job to make sure we get around that.
Thanks for reading everyone, leave a comment if you have your own opinion and don't be afraid to share with others.
