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Description
Despite the longstanding ethnic and cultural diversity of the playing workforce in (some) elite level sports, there has been a minimal throughput into senior coaching positions at professional sports clubs globally. In response, some sports organisations have developed new interventions designed to address racialised inequities in sports coaching, This paper offers an empirical and theoretical examination of the English Football League’s (EFL) Voluntary Recruitment Code (VRC): a positive action intervention modelled on the US NFL ‘Rooney Rule’ designed to establish inclusive practices of coach recruitment and increase the representation of racially minoritized coaches at men’s professional football clubs. This paper draws on interviews with football stakeholders (n=19) and minoritized coaches (n=26) to ascertain their perceptions, experiences, and reflections on three inter-connected areas of focus. Firstly, the operational and attitudinal implementation of the VRC at clubs. Secondly, the effectiveness of the VRC in engendering its intended operational and representational impacts at clubs. Thirdly, critical reflections as to the ways in which the VRC might be reformulated and reimplemented to better stimulate the conditions through which equality of opportunities, experiences, and outcomes might be realised. The paper will conclude from a Critical Race Theory (CRT) perspective that measures of this kind should be strongly interventionist and transformational in their policy intentions and ideological scope, and engender a holistic legislative and pedagogical approach to tackling racialised inequities. Further, in doing so, they should seek to challenge and disrupt dominant liberal discourses of meritocracy, race-neutrality, colour-blindness, and hegemonic Whiteness in football and sporting contexts.
