FA in danger of deferring to 'Rooney Rule'

A person's sexual orientation should be treated with the same respect as his or her racial classification - though the latter concept was recently questioned by John Barnes, who implied that "race" was an artificial device contrived by supremacists.

I wish David Cameron had called for a debate on that when he hosted a meeting with football folk yesterday, rather than just asking the FA to report within three months on how to stem what one newspaper called a "rising tide of racism and homophobia". If this exists, it is only in the intellectual vacuum of Twitter, surely the most regressive of inventions, one whose prohibition would create a hurricane of fresh air.

Things have got better in the real world and, if you doubt it, summon the memory of Robbie Fowler, who mischievously turned his back and bent over, holding his buttocks, as Graeme Le Saux prepared to take a free kick at Stamford Bridge in 1999.

An even more distinguished international than Fowler would have been in trouble with today's FA for the abuse he gave Le Saux in another match - as would the heterosexual Le Saux had he responded with a reference to his tormentor's ethnicity.

The episode involving Luis Suarez and allegation against John Terry have cast football in an unflattering light, despite its obvious determination to meet racial abuse head on. And the danger now is that the FA will come under pressure to defer to the so-called "Rooney Rule", which, in American football, lays down that black candidates must be interviewed for managers' jobs.

Should that not happen naturally? And, while we are on the subject, should we not add Chris Hughton, whose reputation, enhanced at Newcastle, continues to soar in the service of promotion-chasing Birmingham City, to the unofficial shortlist for England manager?