Exploring the Rooney Rule and its Lessons for European Football
When:
—
Venue:
Birkbeck Clore Management Centre
Reception: The event will be followed by a drinks reception.
In this presentation, Professor Jeremi Duru, one of the United States' foremost scholars on civil rights in sport, will address the efficacy of the Rooney Rule in the National Football League (NFL) and the possibilities for its application in European football, particularly within the English Premier League.
The event, organised in collaboration with the Fare network, and the American University Washington College of Law's Sport & Society Initiative, will aim to contribute to the ongoing debate about representation and equality in European football's leadership ranks. For years, the Premier League and other European leagues have faced criticism for their lack of diversity in coaching and executive positions, despite the significant number of Black and minority ethnic players on the pitch. Professor Duru's presentation in London will offer an opportunity to examine a model from the United States that, while not without flaws, has reshaped the conversation around hiring practices and accountability in sport.
The Rooney Rule: Origins and Impact
The Rooney Rule was introduced by the NFL in 2003 after pressure from advocates and a landmark study demonstrated that Black head coaches were not being hired despite strong records and qualifications. The rule required teams to interview at least one minority candidate for every head coaching vacancy. Named after Dan Rooney, the late owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers NFL team, and chair of the league's diversity committee, the measure was not a quota, nor did it guarantee jobs. Instead, it aimed to ensure that qualified candidates were considered, breaking the cycle of exclusion rooted in informal networks and entrenched biases.
Over the years, the Rooney Rule has been both praised and criticised. On one hand, it helped bring more diverse candidates into the interview room and contributed to the hiring of several successful minority coaches. On the other, its implementation has been uneven, and some teams have been accused of treating interviews as token gestures rather than genuine opportunities. In recent years, high-profile cases, including lawsuits brought by coaches who felt the rule was not applied in good faith, have underscored its limitations.
Still, the Rooney Rule remains a landmark intervention in professional sport, and it has inspired similar measures in other sectors, from business to the public sector. It is this complex picture–the successes, the shortcomings, and the lessons learned–that Professor Jeremi Duru will address in this London presentation.
Why European Football Should Listen
The question of representation in football management is not new. In the Premier League, around 43% of players are Black or from other minority ethnic backgrounds, but the percentage of managers and executives from similar backgrounds remains in the low single digits. This imbalance has sparked growing concern among players, campaigners, and fans who see a structural barrier to progression beyond the playing field.
Initiatives have been tried. The English FA introduced its own voluntary version of the Rooney Rule for national team appointments in 2018, requiring that at least one Black, Asian, or minority ethnic candidate be interviewed. Some clubs have followed suit with their own policies. Yet critics argue that without robust enforcement and transparency, these efforts risk becoming symbolic rather than transformative.
Professor Duru's expertise is highly relevant in shedding light on these challenges. He has spent much of his career tracking how rules designed to open doors can be circumvented, watered down, or misunderstood, but also how they can be sharpened to deliver real progress. His insights will help those in European football reflect on whether their efforts to date have been too tentative and what it would take to build a truly effective framework.
Biography
Jeremi Duru is a professor of law at American University’s Washington College of Law and, Jeremi has written extensively on the intersection of law, race, and sport. He is a co-author of one of the field’s premier casebooks, Sports Law and Regulation: Cases and Materials (3rd edition) (Wolters Kluwer), as well as one of the field’s premier explorations of sports agency, The Business of Sports Agents (3rd Edition) (U. of Penn Press). In addition, he is the sole author of Advancing the Ball: Race, Reformation, and the Quest for Equal Coaching Opportunity in the NFL (Oxford University Press), which examines the NFL’s movement toward increased equality of opportunity for coaches and front office personnel.
Contact name: Sean Hamil
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