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LONDON. — England will implement the “Rooney Rule” when appointing a successor to Gareth Southgate as part of new 2018 reform plans. The English Football Association announced a series of initiatives yesterday aimed to improve the culture at the governing body in 2018, while increasing funding per year by £57m.

The “Rooney Rule” is an NFL policy that requires the league’s 32 teams to interview black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) candidates for head coaching and senior operation roles.

“The commitment to the ‘Rooney Rule’ is about bringing to life our ambition to make the people that run football and manage football, they should look — in mine and the FA’s view – more like the people that play football today,” chief executive Martin Glenn told Sky Sports News, confirming it will be applied to the selection process for England’s next manager. “We are going to be public about this. We will be held to account both in terms of our diversity targets, but also on this. It’s FA policy not just the individual choice of any chief executive.”Senior executives at the FA apologised to England women’s players Eni Aluko and Drew Spence and admitted serious failings within the organisation in front of a Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee last year. — Sky Sports