Even with more transparency, quite often the Rooney rule is a mere formality. Teams interview guys, choose their coach and then call a minority guy who never stood a chance for an interview. It is a well-intentioned rule but terribly difficult to transfer that intention to practice.

Britain's cultural history is likewise rife with racism, and the subordination of a constructed Other.

Agreed, but it's not part of the public discourse in the same way as it is in the US. I'm not saying the Americans do it the right way (far from it) but at least they do talk about it. It's not an issue that's ever really broached in the UK, unless it's by someone like David Starkey...

Ah sorry mate, thought the general point being made was that America had a bigger problem with racism than in Britain - which isn't the case.

True racism isn't in our everyday discourse, and difficult to argue whether this is a good or bad thing on a football forum.

What about women? Women can be football managers. Perhaps one woman should be interviewed as well?

I'm sorry but I hate rules like this. People want to get rid of racism out of society yet they still identify people by skin colour and ethnicity, which is what they do with rules like this. In my opinion you can't have both, you either identify everyone as human beings, regardless of skin colour or backgroud or you view people by race.

Sure, if Fifa allows it (which I suspect they wouldn't) then why not? Why haven't the likes of Hope Powell been in the running for jobs?

I share Radar's cynicism on how the clubs will react to this. None the less, we do have a lack of non white managers in the game and there does seem to be a problem, Rooney's Rule seems to have had some effect so why not try it here?

I thought the same thing when the NFL enacted it. However, it has had a major impact on hiring, with the number of minority coaches jumping from 6% to 22%. Further, several of the minority coaches have gone on to win the league.

The problem that exists, and that this rule attempts to fix, is that most club owners are old, conservative, white men who are often afraid to take the risk of even interviewing a coach who is "different." But the NFL teams that have taken a chance on the minority coaches they have interviewed have been, so far, rewarded for their choices. So, although we should not see skin color, many people still do and won't change unless forced to do so.

The problem is though by forcing them to do this, surely this will cause more resentment towards the individual being interviewed, putting them at a further disadvantage? Kind of a 'your here because you have to be' type thing?

I think there needs to be higher profile players though taking managerial roles. Paul Ince is one, Chris Powell is another who have stepped up but others need to and perhaps in ten years when some of the current crop retire, we may see more people moving into these roles.

Les Ferdinand was on Goals on Sunday talking about this and he mentioned that he has spoken to many black players in the game who have completed all their badges and have not been given a chance to coach a team. He also mentioned that a lot of black players who retired from the game didn't bother going into coaching because they thought there was no point as they felt they wouldn't get a job. Tubz has made a very good point though that it shouldn't be a rule that is enforced as this will not help but I can't see any other way of implementing it. The mindset of the club owners will still be the same.

But there are a lot of white English coaches in the same boat. There are about 10,000 people applying for 92 jobs and at the end of the day football is such a pressure cooker that chairman have to make correct decisions. For example if the Blackburn Rovers job came up, you could have people like Glenn Hoddle, Alan Curbishley, Steve Coppell, Mark Hughes all vying for that position. What would make Les Ferdinand or a coloured person with no experience in football better than those options? Even looking further down the pyramid, people like Micky Adams, Peter Taylor, Peter Reid are all getting jobs down there. If you had those three going for one job, why would you appoint a coloured manager with no experience?

Unfortunately its a common theme in most walks of life - too many qualified people applying but not enough jobs for them.

I don't think that most owners are actively against hiring minorities for coaching roles, I think that most owners are "scared" of trying anything different. As a result they don't even interview minority candidates, because no one else is. Plus, there is nothing in the rule that requires the owners to hire the minority candidates, simply interview them. It gives the minority candidate a chance to "wow" the team, which might be enough to convince the team to take a risk. So I don't think there would be much, if any, resentment. All the rule requires is that a minority candidate be given a chance to interview for the job. If the minority candidate is still the least qualified, the team is still completely within its rights to hire someone else. But sometimes you need to force the system to consider changing.

Once a team or two have success with minority managers, it won't be a problem. A good example is the NFL. A few years ago, there were only three teams with minority coaches, and two of those coaches got there start in coaching by the third. Then, there two of those coaches made the Superbowl in the same year. Since then, 4 or 5 new minority coaches have been added, and hopefully the opportunity for more in the future. But none of this may have happened if teams had not had their hands forced.

I thought this might be a good time to resurrect this post. As much as I dislike Rio Ferdinand, he's having a fantastic row with Sepp Blatter on Twitter.

http://twitter.com/#!/rioferdy5


That man should really resign. He's an absolute disgrace.

way past his expiry date.

Not much more to add really.

He is the world's boss of football, so to say, and in a time when hundreds of games each weekend are disturbed because of racist chants, some even have to be cancelled, players are humiliated and offended week in week out, he is having the cheek to play the problem down and treat everyday racism like something that can be undone with a handshake. Don't even get me started on the PR move on fifa.com where his declaration is illustrated with a big picture of him hugging a black man that is not introduced or mentioned in the article. "Let's just take the picture of this black guy to show that the boss cares about these folks."

Let's not forget, this is someone that, when questioned whether homosexual fans should abstain from travelling to the World Cup 2022 because homosexual intercourse is forbidden in Qatar, jokingly answered that in this case "they should refrain from any sexuality".

The ignorance of this guy is appalling.

Former Liverpool star John Barnes says society is to blame for racism problem that football just can't shift
John Barnes, the former England international who endured racist abuse during his distinguished career, admits he is “not surprised’’ by the latest ugly incidents because football reflects a society taking time to shed ingrained prejudices.
By Henry Winter, 18 Nov 2011
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/footba ... shift.html

“I’m not condoning what Sepp Blatter has said or John Terry, if he’s proven to be guilty,’’ Barnes said. “I think Blatter should resign over many things, and this is just one. But those thoughts are based on stereotypical views drummed into us over a long period of time. People have been told for 400 years since slavery that black people aren’t as intelligent as white. White players always said to me: ‘You can call me ‘a white so and so’, I don’t mind’. But that’s because society has indoctrinated us over the past 400 years to think that that’s like saying ‘you handsome so and so’. That’s why white players aren’t offended. They’re empowered. Black people aren’t empowered; 99 per cent of black individuals would be offended being called ‘a black so and so’ because we’ve had 400 years of being dehumanised.”

“We don’t know whether the allegations about John Terry and Luis Suárez are true. What we do know is that it’s happened before. The words they are alleged to have said have been said in the past year but it hasn’t been reported. Now and then there’s an incident and people are surprised. I’m not. I know it’s there. Any black player knows this. We’ve played against players, got into an altercation, looked him in the eye, he’s not said anything, but you know he’s thinking “you black ----’. He wants to say it but doesn’t because he knows he’ll get into trouble. That happens very often. When I played they actually said it. They called me n----- to my face. It happened in training, in matches. Any black player of my generation had it. In 1984 with England in Brazil, I had it with the National Front.”

Four years later, the then Liverpool winger was targeted by Everton fans at Goodison Park. “I had bananas thrown at me and monkey chants at West Ham and Millwall five years before that Everton game but because it was a high-profile match everyone took notice. It had been going on for ages. There wasn’t a game in the Eighties when you didn’t get racial abuse as a black player. I got racist abuse at Liverpool when I played for Watford. Then I played for Liverpool and didn’t get it. If I had played for Everton against Liverpool then maybe the Liverpool fans would have racially abused me. A lot of people are jumping on the bandwagon now about Blatter, saying he’s wrong – and he is. But if you want to have a South African-style Truth and Reconciliation Commission, get in every manager and player who is over 40 and ask them: ‘Say you have never used the N-word?’ Most won’t be able to. Much more than 75 per cent of people back then in the Eighties would have.”

“But people could not get under my skin. I’m a middle-class Jamaican boy and where I was brought up in Jamaica [in a wealthy military household] I was not meant to feel second-class. If I was brought up in England, I’d possibly see things differently. Ian Wright dealt with racism differently to how I did. Racism’s still a big problem in football. Racism can be invisible. How many black managers in England are there? Two. Black managers are given very short periods of time because people don’t believe they are up to the job. That’s racism. It’s not just a white thing. Look at the hierarchy of black African football who believe European coaches are better than black African. They treat black coaches with disdain. There’s this black dynamic of not feeling good enough.”

“We are all racist to a certain extent. We all make presumptions about other people based on their colour, culture or ethnicity in variable degrees. We judge people even on their accents. When Eric Cantona said what he said about trawlers and seagulls, he’s a philosopher because of the French accent. It sounds intelligent. If Paul Merson said it in his Cockney accent, we’d say he was talking rubbish. Race, for me, should be social and cultural, rather than the colour of your skin. Anton Ferdinand would have more in common with John Terry than he does with some West African from Nigeria. John Terry will have more in common with Anton Ferdinand than a Slav from Eastern Europe who happens to be white. Racism is such a complex subject.”

So what’s the way ahead? “Football can do nothing about getting rid of racism. Society has to [do it], through education and people understanding why they feel the way they do. Prejudice is a problem all over the world. I’m surprised when I see black people in the higher echelons of society. I know the most powerful man in the world is black [Barack Obama] but 400 years of indoctrination into thinking about a group of people as inferior is not going to change overnight. There was the human rights movement in the 1960s and yet 20 years ago we were still being racially abused – and it was accepted.”

Now 48, Barnes does see hope for the future. “My children don’t get racially abused. There’s a new British culture; those from 10 to 25 now identify with each other, whether black, white, Indian, Chinese. Black kids once upon a time would hold on to their West Indian or African identity because of their parents. Black kids now are British. Indian girls are wearing miniskirts and going out dancing. White kids are listening to black music. We are going through a transitional period.’’ Leaving the unreconstructed likes of Blatter behind.