---
title: "Crystal Palace coach is in favour of a “Rooney Rule” in Football League"
canonical: "https://readcrystalpalace.com/2015/10/28/crystal-palace-coach-favour-rooney-rule-foot/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Ste Hoare"
section: "Crystal Palace News"
published: "2015-10-28T12:06:22Z"
modified: "2015-10-28T12:10:53Z"
---

# Crystal Palace coach is in favour of a “Rooney Rule” in Football League

Crystal Palace’s First-team coach John Salako says he is in favour of the Football League’s decision to implement a ‘Rooney Rule’.

The rule, which is already used in the NFL and is set to be implemented in the Football League in 2016, requires at least one person with a black and/or minority ethnic (BME) background to be interviewed for any head coaching positions that become available.

Speaking to [The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/oct/28/john-salako-crystal-palace-race-bme-english-football), Salako said:

> I’m all for it because at least it provides opportunity to be considered.

![Gallo Images/Getty Images Sport](https://media.readcrystalpalace.com/readcrystalpalace/sites/17/2015/10/4816466402.jpg)

Despite there being a handful of black men getting the chance to manage Football League clubs, the former England international said that there are still many black and/or ethnic minority ex-players who decide not to go into management or coaching because they feel like they won’t be presented with any opportunities.

> A lot of high-profile black players aren’t as interested in moving into coaching, perhaps because they don’t think they’ll get a chance. Seeing people like Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Chris Hughton and Chris Powell doing well is encouraging but we’re still nowhere near where we should be. There is a lot of focus on it but I think everyone has to look at themselves. A lot of the boardrooms are old-school and chairmen don’t tend to give enough opportunity to black guys, even for an interview.

> It’s like that in any walk of life – if you look at MDs and owners of businesses then they still tend to be straight white guys who will have an idea of who they want and how they want their companies to be run. But we’re slowly breaking that down and it won’t be long until we have a black James Bond, for example.

The former Palace winger also said that there are some black and ethnic coaches coming through the system, but work is needed to get more of them into the game.

> There are a lot more black and ethnic coaches coming through but there is still a lot of work to be done. It’s a difficult one – there are so many black players in the game that the blockage will slowly be addressed. It will take time though.