A Hugely Significant Moment For Football
The SPTT has been lobbying for change in football
It has been buried under FIFA scandals and doping allegations in athletics – but the black community had it’s most significant football news in decades this month.
To para-phrase Neil Armstrong – football took one small step forward for the black community – and a giant leap for the future of the game – when the Football League announced it would trial it’s own version of the Rooney Rule.
I cannot stress how monumental this move is. For years campaigners, the players union, former players and members of the media have lobbied hard for the introduction of a recruitment system in coaching and management that took into account a history of exclusion and marginalization of black people. On the 4th July 2015 the Football League’s proposals – which still need to be formally signed off – tiptoed towards this.
As of the 2016/17 season, it will be mandatory for Football League academies to interview at least one qualified black candidate for any coaching vacancy, and there is a voluntary option for clubs to roll this out across first team jobs too.
Some may say just trialing the system is no victory – but having been heavily involved in the process, through the Sports People’s Think Tank – I can assure you it is a positive step.
The challenge now is to ensure everyone in the sport does everything they can to help this system succeed. Black players must continue to get qualified and apply for roles, the industry must make sure jobs are advertised correctly, and the system must be monitored and evaluated by an independent body who can critically assess it’s effectiveness.
Finally, after years and years of endless meetings, where the games rulers listed off reasons why a Rooney Rule equivalent would be impossible, the leap of faith has been made. And the ultimate success of this system will be eventually getting to a place where a Rooney Rule equivalent is genuinely not needed – a place all of us are desperate to get to…