Post by Macmoish on Jul 15, 2011 5:57:27 GMT
Telegraph/Paul Kelso
MPs insist on radical reform before Football Association can be trusted to run football
A parliamentary committee will propose handing the Football Association new powers to govern the club game as long as it first agrees to fundamental changes to its board structure and governance, Telegraph Sport can reveal.
An inquiry into the governance of English football by MPs on the Culture Media and Sport select committee is understood to have concluded that the FA, as structured, is unfit to govern the game.
They believe that with radical reform, however, it should take control for oversight of the club game, including the highly contentious area of clubs' finances and ownership.
The committee members met yesterday to begin discussions over their final report into the governance of the English game, and while the details are yet to be finalised their recommendations are likely to be radical and far-reaching.
As well as proposing changes to the FA structure, including a streamlined board and decision-making process, the MPs are expected to call for a licensing system to govern clubs across the Premier League and Football League.
In perhaps the most controversial measure, responsibility for overseeing the licensing system, including vetting of owners and directors and club finances, would be handed to the reformed FA.
The Premier League currently has responsibility for vetting owners and takeovers and can be expected to resist any attempts to hand that power to the FA.
The Premier League's lack of faith in the FA, in its current form, is shared by many MPs. Having taken evidence over a two-month period from leading figures and stakeholders, they have reached the conclusion that the FA's structure is a barrier to effective governance.
Despite this, the committee has concluded that the FA is the only appropriate body for governing
the wider game, providing it is reformed.
Its recommendations will be contained in a final report that it hopes to agree before the summer recess, which begins a week today, and will then be considered by sports minister Hugh Robertson.
Robertson has promised to make his own proposals for the game's governance and will be sympathetic to reform of the FA having declared football "the worst-governed sport in the UK". The licensing proposal is also understood to have support in government.
He has no power to force the measures on the game but will hope that the threat of legislation – something he reinforced as an option in evidence to the committee – will persuade the FA to adopt reforms.
The precise proposals for streamlining the FA are yet to be agreed but MPs will call for the current board, set to rise to 14 with the appointment of two independent directors by chairman David Bernstein, to be reduced.
Independent directors were first proposed by Lord Burns in his 2005 review of the FA's governance but he also proposed reducing the representation from the national and professional game, who currently have six members each. Bernstein ducked this issue by adding the two independents to the existing membership.
The select committee is likely to call for more independent members, a reduction in the vested interests on the board, with a casting vote lying with the independent voices.
The licensing system, which will echo that currently used by Uefa for its competitions, is seen as a way of handing the FA the authority it has lost in the Premier League era.
Crucially, it is intended to avoid the conflict of interests that occurs when the Premier League is responsible for regulating the clubs that are effectively its owners.
The committee is thought to have been swayed by the case of Portsmouth, which had four changes of ownership in 18 months.
The MPs are also expected to call for the abolition of the football creditors rule, under which clubs and players are paid before other creditors in the event of a club going bust.
.....
BBC think outside Olympic Park
The British Olympic Association will not disclose what it is paying to host 'Team GB House' in the Westfield Stratford shopping centre adjoining the Olympic Park, but its financial constraints mean that the prime locations were out of the question.
Sky, major American broadcasters and some Olympic sponsors are thought to have paid up to £1 million for prime spots on the edge of the Westfield shopping centre, with views of the aquatic centre and main Olympic Stadium.
As a non-rights holder, Sky is not permitted to broadcast from within the park, but it is arguable that the Westfield location is superior to any positions within the Olympic perimeter.
To emphasise the point, the BBC's main broadcast position is not in the park, but on the top floor of a council tower block well outside the perimeter that offers views of the main stadium.
The Beeb's position should give it a direct view of the Olympic flame – should it be housed in the main stadium – but it remains to be seen how athletes and presenters react to having to leave the park and then take a council lift to the main presentation studio.
www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/competitions/premier-league/8633106/MPs-insist-on-radical-reform-before-Football-Association-can-be-trusted-to-run-football.html
MPs insist on radical reform before Football Association can be trusted to run football
A parliamentary committee will propose handing the Football Association new powers to govern the club game as long as it first agrees to fundamental changes to its board structure and governance, Telegraph Sport can reveal.
An inquiry into the governance of English football by MPs on the Culture Media and Sport select committee is understood to have concluded that the FA, as structured, is unfit to govern the game.
They believe that with radical reform, however, it should take control for oversight of the club game, including the highly contentious area of clubs' finances and ownership.
The committee members met yesterday to begin discussions over their final report into the governance of the English game, and while the details are yet to be finalised their recommendations are likely to be radical and far-reaching.
As well as proposing changes to the FA structure, including a streamlined board and decision-making process, the MPs are expected to call for a licensing system to govern clubs across the Premier League and Football League.
In perhaps the most controversial measure, responsibility for overseeing the licensing system, including vetting of owners and directors and club finances, would be handed to the reformed FA.
The Premier League currently has responsibility for vetting owners and takeovers and can be expected to resist any attempts to hand that power to the FA.
The Premier League's lack of faith in the FA, in its current form, is shared by many MPs. Having taken evidence over a two-month period from leading figures and stakeholders, they have reached the conclusion that the FA's structure is a barrier to effective governance.
Despite this, the committee has concluded that the FA is the only appropriate body for governing
the wider game, providing it is reformed.
Its recommendations will be contained in a final report that it hopes to agree before the summer recess, which begins a week today, and will then be considered by sports minister Hugh Robertson.
Robertson has promised to make his own proposals for the game's governance and will be sympathetic to reform of the FA having declared football "the worst-governed sport in the UK". The licensing proposal is also understood to have support in government.
He has no power to force the measures on the game but will hope that the threat of legislation – something he reinforced as an option in evidence to the committee – will persuade the FA to adopt reforms.
The precise proposals for streamlining the FA are yet to be agreed but MPs will call for the current board, set to rise to 14 with the appointment of two independent directors by chairman David Bernstein, to be reduced.
Independent directors were first proposed by Lord Burns in his 2005 review of the FA's governance but he also proposed reducing the representation from the national and professional game, who currently have six members each. Bernstein ducked this issue by adding the two independents to the existing membership.
The select committee is likely to call for more independent members, a reduction in the vested interests on the board, with a casting vote lying with the independent voices.
The licensing system, which will echo that currently used by Uefa for its competitions, is seen as a way of handing the FA the authority it has lost in the Premier League era.
Crucially, it is intended to avoid the conflict of interests that occurs when the Premier League is responsible for regulating the clubs that are effectively its owners.
The committee is thought to have been swayed by the case of Portsmouth, which had four changes of ownership in 18 months.
The MPs are also expected to call for the abolition of the football creditors rule, under which clubs and players are paid before other creditors in the event of a club going bust.
.....
BBC think outside Olympic Park
The British Olympic Association will not disclose what it is paying to host 'Team GB House' in the Westfield Stratford shopping centre adjoining the Olympic Park, but its financial constraints mean that the prime locations were out of the question.
Sky, major American broadcasters and some Olympic sponsors are thought to have paid up to £1 million for prime spots on the edge of the Westfield shopping centre, with views of the aquatic centre and main Olympic Stadium.
As a non-rights holder, Sky is not permitted to broadcast from within the park, but it is arguable that the Westfield location is superior to any positions within the Olympic perimeter.
To emphasise the point, the BBC's main broadcast position is not in the park, but on the top floor of a council tower block well outside the perimeter that offers views of the main stadium.
The Beeb's position should give it a direct view of the Olympic flame – should it be housed in the main stadium – but it remains to be seen how athletes and presenters react to having to leave the park and then take a council lift to the main presentation studio.
www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/competitions/premier-league/8633106/MPs-insist-on-radical-reform-before-Football-Association-can-be-trusted-to-run-football.html