The report of the House of Commons select committee on Media, Culture and Sport on football has been published. The report has been welcomed by fans’ organisation Supporters Direct and says the things one would expect it to say about transparency and good governance of the game.
The report of the House of Commons select committee on Media, Culture and Sport on football has been published. The report has been welcomed by fans’ organisation Supporters Direct and says the things one would expect it to say about transparency and good governance of the game.
There is certainly a need for the latter as far as the Football Association is concerned and a continuing doubt must be whether it can get its own house in order and act on recommendations in the report such as that for a strong and consistent fit and proper persons test.
One surprise in the report is that the sequence of events at Leeds United is singled out for criticism and the committee calls for a FA investigation, possible assisted by HM Revenue and Customs.
If the FA fails to act, there must be questions whether government will be able to do so. Certainly, it has failed to intervene effectively in the past. The political agenda is crowded, the post of sports minister is a relatively junior one and although there is certainly a lot of public interest in the subject matter, whether real and coherent change can be achieved remains to be seen.