Post by QPR Report on Feb 27, 2009 7:58:46 GMT
Weird re Luton and Rotherham giving their "problems."
From The Guardian/Matt Scott
Ouseley in threat to quit FA over 'black exclusion'• Veteran campaigner says there is no will for reform
• Mixed-race candidate was not shortlisted for top job
Herman Ouseley has threatened to quit the Football Association council over what he termed the "institutional exclusion" of black and minority-ethnic figures from the game's decision-making bodies.
Lord Ouseley, former chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, was appalled at the failure of a nominations committee of senior FA figures to consider Heather Rabbatts as a serious candidate for the chief executive's position filled last week. The Jamaica-born Rabbatts, who is of mixed race, was on a list of 12 applicants but was not accorded even a preliminary interview after failing to make the cut from 12 to six.
"They're white and male at the top of the pyramid but there are lots of people from all backgrounds playing football," Ouseley said at a function launching the Football Foundation's diversity strategy this week. "It's about how we get through the mechanism and having enough people rise up through the institutions. I nearly resigned from the council last week. In terms of where we make the shift and get senior management and board to recognise it, we're talking about institutional exclusion. If they don't break the mould nothing will change."
Ouseley had to be talked out of resigning from the Race Equality Advisory Group, an FA sub-committee, by his fellow members, who have elected him to the FA council. The group was set up in the wake of the Burns report, a review of the FA that noted the long-overdue requirement for the contribution of black and minority-ethnic communities to the game to be recognised. Several other structural reforms recommended by Terry Burns, which led to the appointment of David Triesman as the FA's first independent chairman, have since been abandoned.
"The decisions at the top level are taken by those who are powerful so there is no will for reform," said Ouseley. "I think there are big vested interests who'd resist change on the FA board. For them it is about maintaining the status quo."
Ouseley is understood to have made plain his frustrations to Lord Triesman but is by no means an isolated voice in expressing his frustrations about opportunities missed, of which Rabbatts, who declined to comment, appears to have become the latest victim. The broadcaster Garth Crooks and the former Chelsea and Celtic player Paul Elliott, who are special advisers on sports issues to the Commission for Equality and Human Rights, are said by close associates also to have been dismayed at the development.
The executive deputy chairman of Millwall, Rabbatts had impressed headhunters with a CV that includes a non-executive directorship of the Bank of England and having been a governor of the BBC. Her broadcast experience – something previously considered crucial at Soho Square with the appointment as chief executive of the former BBC and ITV head of sport, Brian Barwick, in 2004 – extended to her having been a senior Channel 4 executive.
Of the five-man nominations committee – Phil Gartside and Sir Dave Richards from the professional game, Barry Bright and Roger Burden from the amateur game, as well as Triesman – Richards was her strongest advocate. But she could not muster sufficient support from the others on the committee, none of whom was available for comment last night after they attended a board meeting at Soho Square except for Burden, who refused to do so.
"There was a robust recruitment and selection process for the new chief executive and the best candidate got the job," said an FA statement. "The FA is committed to achieving national standards of equality and Lord Ouseley remains a massive influence as chairman of the FA Race Equality Advisory Group."
Had she reached the last six in the process, Rabbatts would have been the only individual apart from the former Arsenal chief executive, Keith Edelman, with football experience. The position was ultimately filled by the 50-year-old former civil servant Ian Watmore, whose appointment has been criticised given his links to Triesman, with whom he worked as permanent secretary to the department for innovation, universities and skills.
Slater on the outside
Barbara Slater's influence as the BBC's first female head of sport might not be as strong as expected after it emerged she had no input in the recent revamp of its late-night news-and-features show, Inside Sport. Although Amanda Farnsworth, a close associate of Slater's predecessor, Roger Mosey, left the show to be replaced as editor by Alastair McIntyre, it is said that the incoming head of sport was not asked for her opinion on those moves despite it being her department's flagship sports-news programme. Farnsworth will be unlamented when the new series begins in April but McIntyre has only a single shot at it. He will be replaced by Jo McCusker for its following series but Slater had no say in that decision either.
Blow for Blatter plan
Fifa's increasingly ludicrous attempts to campaign for the introduction of a 6+5 rule, dictating that clubs' starting line-ups must include six locally qualified players, went a step further yesterday with the release of an academic report it had paid for. It took less than two hours for a European Commission spokesman to dismiss the plan as "direct discrimination". The report had even outlined a loophole for players to get round the rules: "The 6+5 rule merely considers the entitlement to play for the national team concerned." That means the likes of Mikel Arteta and Manuel Almunia, pictured, Spain-born players who have never represented their country, would be counted among the six and not the five. This dissuades such players to accept international caps from their native countries because they would become disqualified from representing their adopted nation. Sepp Blatter has yet to explain how that will improve international football.
Duo dominate agent fees
Rotherham United and Luton Town accounted for more than half of their entire division's payments to agents in the six months from July to December last year. The two clubs became debt-free companies after emerging from administration last year and their combined £79,500 payments to agents compared with a £158,500 total for League Two. They were by far the most generous, completing only 60 deals between them of 530 in total. On average, agents earned £168 per transaction from other League Two clubs - but at these two that rose to £1,325. They might both be under new management but could the profligacy of the past, which led to both suffering large points deductions, be repeated?
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/feb/27/matt-scatt-digger-herman-ouseley
From The Guardian/Matt Scott
Ouseley in threat to quit FA over 'black exclusion'• Veteran campaigner says there is no will for reform
• Mixed-race candidate was not shortlisted for top job
Herman Ouseley has threatened to quit the Football Association council over what he termed the "institutional exclusion" of black and minority-ethnic figures from the game's decision-making bodies.
Lord Ouseley, former chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, was appalled at the failure of a nominations committee of senior FA figures to consider Heather Rabbatts as a serious candidate for the chief executive's position filled last week. The Jamaica-born Rabbatts, who is of mixed race, was on a list of 12 applicants but was not accorded even a preliminary interview after failing to make the cut from 12 to six.
"They're white and male at the top of the pyramid but there are lots of people from all backgrounds playing football," Ouseley said at a function launching the Football Foundation's diversity strategy this week. "It's about how we get through the mechanism and having enough people rise up through the institutions. I nearly resigned from the council last week. In terms of where we make the shift and get senior management and board to recognise it, we're talking about institutional exclusion. If they don't break the mould nothing will change."
Ouseley had to be talked out of resigning from the Race Equality Advisory Group, an FA sub-committee, by his fellow members, who have elected him to the FA council. The group was set up in the wake of the Burns report, a review of the FA that noted the long-overdue requirement for the contribution of black and minority-ethnic communities to the game to be recognised. Several other structural reforms recommended by Terry Burns, which led to the appointment of David Triesman as the FA's first independent chairman, have since been abandoned.
"The decisions at the top level are taken by those who are powerful so there is no will for reform," said Ouseley. "I think there are big vested interests who'd resist change on the FA board. For them it is about maintaining the status quo."
Ouseley is understood to have made plain his frustrations to Lord Triesman but is by no means an isolated voice in expressing his frustrations about opportunities missed, of which Rabbatts, who declined to comment, appears to have become the latest victim. The broadcaster Garth Crooks and the former Chelsea and Celtic player Paul Elliott, who are special advisers on sports issues to the Commission for Equality and Human Rights, are said by close associates also to have been dismayed at the development.
The executive deputy chairman of Millwall, Rabbatts had impressed headhunters with a CV that includes a non-executive directorship of the Bank of England and having been a governor of the BBC. Her broadcast experience – something previously considered crucial at Soho Square with the appointment as chief executive of the former BBC and ITV head of sport, Brian Barwick, in 2004 – extended to her having been a senior Channel 4 executive.
Of the five-man nominations committee – Phil Gartside and Sir Dave Richards from the professional game, Barry Bright and Roger Burden from the amateur game, as well as Triesman – Richards was her strongest advocate. But she could not muster sufficient support from the others on the committee, none of whom was available for comment last night after they attended a board meeting at Soho Square except for Burden, who refused to do so.
"There was a robust recruitment and selection process for the new chief executive and the best candidate got the job," said an FA statement. "The FA is committed to achieving national standards of equality and Lord Ouseley remains a massive influence as chairman of the FA Race Equality Advisory Group."
Had she reached the last six in the process, Rabbatts would have been the only individual apart from the former Arsenal chief executive, Keith Edelman, with football experience. The position was ultimately filled by the 50-year-old former civil servant Ian Watmore, whose appointment has been criticised given his links to Triesman, with whom he worked as permanent secretary to the department for innovation, universities and skills.
Slater on the outside
Barbara Slater's influence as the BBC's first female head of sport might not be as strong as expected after it emerged she had no input in the recent revamp of its late-night news-and-features show, Inside Sport. Although Amanda Farnsworth, a close associate of Slater's predecessor, Roger Mosey, left the show to be replaced as editor by Alastair McIntyre, it is said that the incoming head of sport was not asked for her opinion on those moves despite it being her department's flagship sports-news programme. Farnsworth will be unlamented when the new series begins in April but McIntyre has only a single shot at it. He will be replaced by Jo McCusker for its following series but Slater had no say in that decision either.
Blow for Blatter plan
Fifa's increasingly ludicrous attempts to campaign for the introduction of a 6+5 rule, dictating that clubs' starting line-ups must include six locally qualified players, went a step further yesterday with the release of an academic report it had paid for. It took less than two hours for a European Commission spokesman to dismiss the plan as "direct discrimination". The report had even outlined a loophole for players to get round the rules: "The 6+5 rule merely considers the entitlement to play for the national team concerned." That means the likes of Mikel Arteta and Manuel Almunia, pictured, Spain-born players who have never represented their country, would be counted among the six and not the five. This dissuades such players to accept international caps from their native countries because they would become disqualified from representing their adopted nation. Sepp Blatter has yet to explain how that will improve international football.
Duo dominate agent fees
Rotherham United and Luton Town accounted for more than half of their entire division's payments to agents in the six months from July to December last year. The two clubs became debt-free companies after emerging from administration last year and their combined £79,500 payments to agents compared with a £158,500 total for League Two. They were by far the most generous, completing only 60 deals between them of 530 in total. On average, agents earned £168 per transaction from other League Two clubs - but at these two that rose to £1,325. They might both be under new management but could the profligacy of the past, which led to both suffering large points deductions, be repeated?
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/feb/27/matt-scatt-digger-herman-ouseley