Parliamentary committee says FA needs radical and ‘urgent reform’

• Report to require new fit and proper person test • Club licensing and ownership should be a priority An influential parliamentary committee has called for “urgent reform” of the Football Association to enable it to take on the task of overseeing a new club licensing system, including a new and “rigorously applied” fit and proper persons test. The committee’s report says “there is no more blatant an example of lack of transparency than the recent ownership history of Leeds United” and urges the FA to investigate, if necessary with the assistance of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. In May the Leeds United chairman, Ken Bates, was forced to reveal that he was the ultimate owner of Leeds following a Guardian investigation and after the issue became a key theme of the inquiry. As predicted by the Guardian, the committee’s 116-page report into the future of English football recommends a radical overhaul of the FA to enable it to establish itself as an overarching regulator. “No one doubts the success of the Premier League in revitalising English football. But it has been accompanied by serious financial problems throughout the football league pyramid. Significant changes need to be made to the way the game is run to secure the future of England’s unique football heritage, and the economic and community benefits it provides,” said the committee chair, John Whittingdale. “The FA is the organisation for the job, but it has some way to go getting its own house in order before it can tackle the problems in the English game, and address the future. We need a reformed FA to oversee and underpin a rigorous and consistent club licensing system and robust rules on club ownership, which should be transparent to supporters.” The report by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport select committee says the current 12-strong FA board should be reduced to 10 and reconstituted to reduce the power of the “vested interests” that the former chief executive Ian Watmore claimed resulted in an inability to take any strategic decisions. It recommends that the board should be made up of the chairman, David Bernstein, the general secretary, Alex Horne, two professional game representatives, two national game representatives, two non-executives and two further FA staff, one of whom should be the director of football development (currently Sir Trevor Brooking). At present the board is split 50/50 between national game and professional game representatives, often resulting in deadlock. Bernstein has proposed adding a further two non-executives to the board, a measure for which he has won the approval of the conservative FA Council. The 116-strong FA Council should also be reformed “to improve inclusivity and reduce average length of tenure”, says the report. It also recommends that the FA reconsider the current policy of splitting surplus revenues 50/50 between the grassroots game and the professional game in order to take long-term strategic decisions. The call for reform has echoes of the 2005 report by Lord Burns, who lamented the lack of progress and expressed regrets that he had not been bolder when he appeared before the committee. The Premier League has long backed calls for reform of the FA’s governance structure, but is likely to oppose the moves to hand responsibility for club licensing to the organisation. “The licensing model adopted should both review performance and look to promote sustainable forward-looking business plans,” says the report. “We recommend that the FA takes on a strong scrutiny and oversight role in the licensing process and makes the final decision on contentious licence applications.” It also urges the FA to spend more on grassroots football and coach education and says it is “concerned” by the lack of a co-ordinated approach to youth development. In a bid to help the supporters’ trust movement, the report also urges the government to amend the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 to clear some of the regulatory hurdles to establishing a trust and calls on the FA to consider a mechanism whereby supporters are given the opportunity to match any other offer for a club in administration. “The reluctance of the FA, Premier League and Football League to devise a formula for the long-term future of Supporters Direct constitutes a failure of imagination and of governance,” it adds. “We urge them to work quickly towards a funding solution, and the government to use its influence with the football authorities to work to this end.” The government is due to respond to the committee’s report by the autumn and is expected to endorse the majority of the recommendations. It is expected to set a 12 month deadline for significant progress to be made. Successive sports ministers have sought to urge the FA to reform, with little success. The report urges football authorities to work together and “to respond positively with an agreed strategy and timetable for change”. Whittingdale said: “Almost all our recommendations could be achieved without legislation, through co-operation and agreement between the football authorities, and we urge them to respond positively with an agreed strategy and timetable for change. Legislation should considered only as a last resort in the absence of substantive progress.” The FA Football politics Owen Gibson guardian.co.uk

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