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Quota for black players in the England team


ICTChris

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http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/may/06/graham-taylor-told-not-pick-too-many-black-players-fa-england

A new book has alleged that former England manager Graham Taylor was put under pressure not to pick too many black players for England during this time in charge. An anti-racism campaigners has said that Taylor told him this off the record during an event in 2001. There's no suggestion that Taylor went along with this and no-one currently invovled in the FA was involved at the time. Taylor has denied the claims.

I'd be surprised but not shocked if this was true, if that makes any sense. Football had moved on in the early 90s but there was still far more racism in the game than today - I remember John Barnes being booed mercilessly during England games at the time.

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Ha.

To be fair to Taylor I don't think anyone would suggest he went along with this or is in any way prejudiced. This is a man who picked Carlton Palmer for England, showing that not only did he not care about the race of his players but he also didn't discriminate on grounds of ability.

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Interesting that he says "I have no memory" of it. Not quite the same as an out and out denial.

Same lawyer as General Oliver North?

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This is the be all and end all of the argument for me. If there was a quota, would he have ever been involved?!

Surely that's actually the complete opposite scenario. Palmer was atrocious, so therefore a quota would explain why he got picked,....,..

Not that I believe such a thing. Taylor was a cockwomble before there was such a thing and just a terrible manager.

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Interesting that he says "I have no memory" of it. Not quite the same as an out and out denial.

Interesting that straight after that he added...

"I never had any problem in regards to team selection concerning black players from the FA."

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Surely that's actually the complete opposite scenario. Palmer was atrocious, so therefore a quota would explain why he got picked,....,..

Not that I believe such a thing. Taylor was a cockwomble before there was such a thing and just a terrible manager.

Did you read the story? It claims Taylor was told not to pick too many black players, not that he had to pick a certain number. So a quota on picking not too many would mean that Taylor would have to pick the decent black players over the likes of Palmer.

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Surely that's actually the complete opposite scenario. Palmer was atrocious, so therefore a quota would explain why he got picked,....,..

Not that I believe such a thing. Taylor was a cockwomble before there was such a thing and just a terrible manager.

23 years of football management between 1972 and 1995 with a 45% win percentage is hardly the stuff of terrible managers.

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I think the point the book is making is that Taylor was requested to limit the number of non-white players. He wasn't picking someone like Palmer because he had to.

Edit: I see this point has already been made.

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23 years of football management between 1972 and 1995 with a 45% win percentage is hardly the stuff of terrible managers.

Precisely. He did take Watford up through the leagues to second in the old First Division.

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Are there any countries whose national team have been known to adopt this sort of policy whether officially or unofficially?

South Africa had a positive quota thingy for the likes of rugby and cricket. I guess it was applied to football too?

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South Africa had a positive quota thingy for the likes of rugby and cricket. I guess it was applied to football too?

I thought they said around WC 2010 that football was traditionally a 'black' sport in South Africa whereas rugby/cricket were traditionally 'white' sports? Could be remembering that wrong.

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