? Former chairman hits out at 'really aggresive' Premier League
? Ruling body said to have 'backed out of regulating'
English football will come under renewed political pressure in the wake of a parliamentary inquiry that has heard claims from the former Football Association chairman, Lord Triesman, that the "really aggressive" attitude of the Premier League and its chairman, Sir Dave Richards, had blocked any attempt at reform.
Lord Triesman, who clashed repeatedly with the Premier League before being forced to resign in Many 2010 over a controversial newspaper sting, has broken his silence over his tenure. "There was no appetite for change," he said, blaming the "systemic failure" of English football governance on a lack of will within the game. Apart from the area of onfield discipline, the FA had "backed out from regulating altogether", he said.
Lord Burns, the Channel 4 chairman who delivered a report in 2005 that recommended the introduction of non?executive directors to break the deadlock on the FA board and reform of the FA Council, criticised the failure to take up his reforms and regretted not being more bold.
"The present board is as if the Financial Services Authority had a controlling interest by the banks who they are regulating. I don't think anybody would regard that as being a satisfactory state of affairs," said Burns. "The FA have struggled to come to terms with the extent of the change in the game and the burdens placed upon them."
Triesman said the FA board, split equally between representatives of the professional and amateur games, was "heavily, deeply conflicted".
It was Richards, said Triesman, who led a move to successfully kill a document that would have set out a new regulatory role for the FA, after it was considered for "a maximum of two minutes".
"The Professional Game Board is led by the most powerful voice in professional football because that controls such a high proportion of the money that flows through the game," said Triesman.
"The point was made by the chairman of the Premier League that this [the FA's submission] should be disregarded from that point on and to simply acknowledge the work done by the Premier League principally and the professional game, and reminding the representatives of the amateur game there where their money came from."Triesman also said a proposal by the former FA chief executive, Ian Watmore ? who later quit in frustration at the "vested interests" on the board ? to have a group of advisers drawn from more ethnically diverse backgrounds, with more women, was also "dismissed after about two minutes on the grounds that all the talent that was needed was in the room".
Premier League insiders have long argued that Triesman was not a consensual figure and failed to consult properly on his plans, before finally withdrawing them in a fit of pique.
Triesman claimed the divisive Richards, who has been chairman of the Premier League since 1999, was a bullying, domineering presence. "My experience is he will put his point politely in board meetings but discussions outside are extremely aggressive discussions, really aggressive discussions, points are made in a very colourful manner. I wouldn't use that language. This is a very, very macho sport. I think some people have cultivated what they think of as being the language of the dressing room as appropriate everywhere."
The sports minister, Hugh Robertson, who recently called football the "worst-governed sport in this country", is determined that the conclusions of the culture, media and sport select committee will result in firm action.
In the years since Burns delivered his original report, successive Labour ministers attempted to persuade the FA to add non-executives to its board but failed.
However, the coalition government is believed to feel that last year's twin failures, of the England team at the World Cup and the 2018 World Cup bid in Zurich, have given it a mandate to act.
Treisman said that the failure to reform the FA to make it the game's overarching regulator had an impact on all levels of the game, including the national team.
"In terms of our clubs we obviously have fantastic success with the Premier League, it is an amazing example," he said.
"But if we look at England as a country playing international football, the outcomes are very poor. I don't think they are satisfactory for England football fans and if the minister was asking if we have a good system, then we have systemic failure."
The inquiry's recommendations could result in the overdue introduction of non-executive directors to the FA board and reform of the Premier League board, which currently comprises just Richards and the chief executive, Richard Scudamore.
The Premier League has always insisted that it supported the Burns reforms. But with the representatives of the national game reluctant to vote for the introduction of non-executives because it would reduce their influence, the issue has proved intractable.
In the wake of England's failure to host the 2018 World Cup, Lord Triesman, the former chairman of the bid, said it was launched on "a completely false prospectus".
"When we set off there was a huge amount of encouragement from Fifa, who said they weren't sure how the finances from South Africa would work out and how the finances from Brazil would work out. So there was a lot of encouragement for England to go for it," he said. "Had they [Fifa] said at the time that the aim was to break into new territories, I would have advised the FA board not to proceed in the first place."
He said he would return to give evidence on the bidding process and claims of corruption. "There will be a time when the contacts I and others had with members of the Fifa executive should be described in detail, because some of the processes I don't think really stand up to proper scrutiny."
The committee, chaired by John Whittingdale MP, is due to deliver its report later this year. It is expected that the government, understood to be "doing its own thinking" in parallel, will act after the report is published.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/feb/08/lord-triesman-sir-dave-richards-fa
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