GARTH CROOKS yesterday called Greg Clarke’s position as chairman of the Football League into question after the PFA claimed he promised to raise the Rooney rule at a meeting and didn’t.

Head of the Professional Footballers’ Association Gordan Taylor said earlier this week that there is a “hidden resistance” to hiring black managers in the English game.

There are currently two black managers in charge out of the 92 teams in the football league, Chris Powell at Huddersfield and Keith Curle at Carlisle.

Taylor claims that Clarke promised to raise the Rooney rule — which would require all teams hiring a new manager to interview at least one ethnic minority for the position — at the next Football League AGM but didn’t and Crooks feels that if this is true, a new chairman is required.

“Gordon Taylor has come out on behalf of his members to highlight what he describes as ‘hidden resistance’ in the professional game towards appointing black managers,” said Crooks.

“This is a remarkable accusation from one of the game’s leading executives. He actually accuses Greg Clarke, chairman of the Football League, of reneging on a commitment to raise the Rooney rule at the Football League AGM.

“If this is true then Greg Clarke has done the game a terrible disservice and should consider his position. Black footballers are supposed to be part of the structure of the game but how can that be true if the game itself is not even prepared to acknowledge their existence at the highest level. Let’s be clear here, what we are actually talking about is giving a player an interview.”

Crooks believes that it is now up to the game’s senior players to demand a change as the leading figures in football seem to have no interest in doing anything about the lack of black managers in the sport.

“Jason Roberts, who recently retired from playing, said the fact we have only two black managers in the professional game and didn’t have any at the start of the season was a ‘shocking statistic’ and he’s absolutely right,” he said.

“The situation now is if the game’s leading figures are not going to do anything to correct this current malaise then Premier League and Football League players will have to get involved and apply pressure.

“It’s no use Gordon and Jason shouting in the wilderness, this kind of change is only going to come about if the game’s top players regardless of colour or creed get involved and demand that the leaders of the game do something about this appalling state of affairs.”