'No racism in football?'

By Alden C. Mayfield

The NFL “Rooney Rule” was implemented in order to allow “non-white” football coaches to have at the very least a basic opportunity at any vacant professional coaching job. While this equal employment opportunity rule has helped some “black” coaches get their feet into the interview rooms, the vast majority of coaches in the NFL is still predominately “white.” Of course, this is due mainly to the overwhelming majority of “white” owners and senior executives that run NFL franchises.

Recently, in an obvious statement of reality, PFA director, Gordon Taylor, made the uncontroversial statement that the reason there are so few “black” managers in European football is simply due to “discriminatory” hiring practices that are controlled by “White” owners and senior executives.

It wasn’t too long ago that “black” athletes weren’t even considered as equals to their “white” counterparts. Of course, this blatant form of racism has since been obliterated as “black” athletes in every professional sport organization, when given an equal opportunity, have proven themselves as equal if not superior.

For the past few decades, “blacks” have excelled in football, basketball, baseball, tennis, and so on. Yet, this success on the field hasn’t translated for most into success in the organization after their playing days. Of course, not all professional athletes, “whites or blacks,” desire nor have the business management skills to be successful at coaching, managing, or other executive positions in the organization.

However, when there are many qualified “black” football managers in Europe and around the world, it is certainly telling to see the paucity of “black” football managers in Europe. What’s the reason for this dearth of “black” football managers in Europe?

“There is no racism in football,” answers Jose Morinho, Chelsea FC manager. In fact, Morinho strongly opposes adopting the NFL “Rooney Rule” which, if adopted, would require all English football organizations to interview at least one “black” manager for the position. Morinho goes on to claim that this would be unfair as the hiring of football managers must be based on “merit” alone. If you’re not good, then you shouldn’t get the job. Only those who are good managers have merited the right to be hired. Therefore, “there is no racism in football.”

It should be highlighted that Morinho was a staunch defender of John Terry as not being a racist despite the fact that the EPL found him guilty of vulgar racist slurs toward Anton Ferdinand.

Either Morinho is in denial of recent history or is just pleading intentional ignorance. Surely his statement that “there is no racism in football” is a clear contradiction of the numerous racist incidents in European football. To mention just a few: what about all the bananas thrown to black players, all the racial taunts and monkey chants? What about the infamous Suarez racial slurs toward Evra, John Terry’s racial slur toward Ferdinand and so on? Who can forget the former Spanish national team coach calling Samuel Eto a monkey? Of course, we mustn’t forget Sepp Blatter’s comments that racism doesn’t exist in football and it should be kept on the playing field.

In order to better understand the real intentions of Morinho’s no racism in football comment, we need to look at the historical facts. It is beyond any reasonable doubt that the reason there are only a few “black” managers in European football is due to a hiring system and culture that is in fact discriminatory and not based on “merit” as Morinho thinks.

In a real sense, Morinho’s comment that there is no racism in football is in fact a clear statement of racism coming from a “white” European male who is unwittingly or deliberately perpetuating an age old myth that “whites” are more rational and thus superior managers. Perhaps the “Special One” is really insinuating that since “white” Europeans are especially gifted with inherent rationality, they are naturally better equipped to manage the tactical and business end of the equation. And this is the often repeated racist equation of being good enough or being hired on “merit.” Or, closer to the bald truth, it may be that “white” Europeans football owners can’t stomach the thought of “black” managers being equally qualified managers because they can’t tolerate a “black” man controlling other “white” players and / or their interests? Perhaps what Morinho is really trying to say is that “blacks” are great footballers on the field, but not so great managers off the field, if you catch my obvious drift.

In qualifying his statement that football managers must be good and thus hired only on “merit” Morinho has unwittingly continued the long discredited racist myth that only “whites” are good enough and thus “merit” the more rational and superior managerial position of making decisions and controlling the situation for “white” majority owners. Surely, after all these years, there are some “black” managers who are good enough in meriting, at the very least, an interview for any managerial position in Europe. And the very fact that there are so few “black” managers in European football is surely not due to them being bad, irrational, and thus inferior managers, but that the “white” controlled hiring process is at best discriminatory and thus unfair.

To say that there is no racism in European football is to either be totally blind to recent historical facts and to the systemic racist structures of the business of European Football and to the reality that many well-qualified “black” managers are not interviewed for any European football managing positions or it is really another blatant perpetuation of long debunked racial myths that only “whites” are naturally and rationally superior to “blacks” when it comes to managerial positions since it is the “white” race that can make these important rational decisions in places of responsible leadership. This “Rooney Rule” if adopted appears be more of threat to the racist fallacy that only “white” managers are naturally, and thus better equipped to manage European football teams.

The writer is a resident of Seoul.