Is It Really That Important To Football?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22194042

/// "No-one is telling owners who to employ," said Taylor, boss of the Professional Footballers' Association. ///

/// "It is letting them know there are people out there." ///

Does anyone really think that they are not already aware of that fact?

[Gromit]

The best person for the job should get the job as manager. English managers are fairly rare in the premiership especially ones that have won the league. I don't think it is desrimination holding them and black players back, I think it is lack of ability.

It is interesting to observe though, that the same people who do not want positive discrimination are the same ones who insist the the England Manager must be an Englishman, and not the best candidate.

[FredPuli43]

They may think that black players don't put themselves up for coaching and management because they see that managers are almost always white . If that's the reason , in either case, they should look at the age of managers and consider how many professional black players there were when the managers were players. In time, the percentage of black managers and coaches will be that of black players now

[bazwillrun]

No
its yet another example of a PC group who hate the whiteness of the country.

its not enough that we are flooded with black players in our national and premier sides.

has it ever occurred to these idiots that perhaps not that many are interested in going into management.
Why not the same clamour to get asians into management, or is it yet another fine example for no justifiable reason of white guilt over blacks .

absolutely pathetic, but as we know these sort of people and their mindset seem more than happy to try and rid us of our identity and heritage at every possible opportunity

[jim360]

It's important to make sure that if black people want to become managers, that they can. That if black people want to become footballers, then they can, without fear of racism. But it's also important that the best person gets the job in the end. In an ideal world, one we might reach in the future, things like this will be non-issues, not because the managers reflect the cultural diversity of the nation, but because we know that they have been given the job purely on merit.

[mushroom25]

football is a great deal more high-powered now than it used to be, probably due to the financial pressures exerted from all sides. thus any manager,whoever (s)he is, will be found out very quickly if (s)he's not there on merit, and will be offered the football manager's poison chalice - the full backing of the club board.

[anotheoldgit]

/// Why not the same clamour to get asians into management, or is it yet another fine example for no justifiable reason of white guilt over blacks ////

And not just in management, lets have some Asian players also.

[anotheoldgit]

/// It is interesting to observe though, that the same people who do not want positive discrimination are the same ones who insist the the England Manager must be an Englishman, and not the best candidate. ///

And who are "these same people" Gromit?

[youngmafbog]

Ludicrous positive discrimination.

If there is evidence that any ethnic minority is being deliberately excluded on the grounds of race then there are laws to deal with it. As there appear to be no prosecutions it rather lends to the thought that this is yet another PC right-on agenda.

Discrimination should NOT take place, positive or negative, IMHO both should be illegal.

[Bazile]

//its yet another example of a PC group who hate the whiteness of the country. //

lol - priceless

[bazwillrun]

priceless..but true

[sp1814]

Bazile

Makes ya laugh doesn't it.

Not even worth commenting on.

[sp1814]

Oh in answer to your question AOG - yes, it is important to football. I know there are some mentally deficient people who don't get this - but because of efforts like this, and the 'Kick It Out' campaign, we are now streets ahead of many of our European counterparts.

Witness the abuse our black players get from Eastern European 'fans'. That would never happen here.

The fact that there are relatively few non-white managers may be because very few black players want to manage, or even have the aptitude...however, if they are deliberately being excluded - why not let's tackle that?

Or should we pretend that everything is hunky dory, and just sit back and do nothing?

[anotheoldgit]

sp1814

Why should black persons be deliberately prevented from becoming Managers, we have plenty of Black players don't we, plenty of foreign Managers and also plenty of foreign owners?

This has nothing to do with racism.

[New Judge]

I think the way to look at this is torecall what Bill Shankly once said. Allegedly one of the most "respected" managers in the game he was said to have once uttered:

"Some people think that football is a matter of life and death, but they're wrong. It's much more important than that!"

What a load of tosh. In the overall scheme of things football does not matter, the people who take part in it do not matter and what they and their "followers" get up to does not matter. Not one jot.

It's just a game (and a fairly tedious one at that) with an unusually high number of cheats among its participants and an unusually high proprtion of racists and homophobes among its followers.

[sp1814]

AOG

Why should black persons be deliberately prevented from becoming Managers

Unfortunately, not everyone is as liberal as you, and there are those within the FA who hold somewhat antiquated views on what black managers can achieve.

People used to think that women didn't have what it takes to become successful business leaders. That idea doesn't hold much currency nowadays - the same needs to happen with black managers in football.

[FredPuli43]

Like the idea that "it is not enough that we are flooded with black players in our national and premier sides " baz. Why do you think that is ? Do they work for less money? Is it political correctness? Positive discrimination? Or are the individuals more talented and better than their white counterparts?

Have you noticed that we are flooded with non-British managers in our national and premier sides too? And with Hispanics in our premier sides? What complaint do you have about their presence, if any ? Let's no start on foreign owners: billionaires and multi-millionaires are always welcome, whatever their origin. After all, as one Roman Emeror remarked, "Money doesn't stink"

[FredPuli43]

aog, there are few "Asian" players because soccer is not part of the culture of their ancestral countries. Cricket is, to such an extent that great West Indian sides have had star players of "Asian" ancestry. Hockey is, too. Given time, many of these people, constantly exposed to soccer in their youth, will develop into soccer players of ability. You may have noticed how few are the star British and Asian baseball players, yet the money for such players is enormous in the States. There are, however, star Guatemalans, good Japanese and fine exiled Cubans; all peoples who have been exposed to baseball.

[FredPuli43]

NJ, Bill Shankly had a sense of humour. Some Scots do (Sir Alex is not, notably, one !). Tommy Docherty was the same: " Doing badly? Sometimes I look to see if we're still on the coupon" and "I thought we did well to get nil", are typical. And all good managers have the knack of focussing their players' minds on the importance to them of being fully committed, as though their lives depended on it.