The Government has finally lost patience with the slowness of the Football Association in putting its house in order. It has told football’s governing body to sort itself out by the end of February or face legislation. Successive governments have always been reluctantly to directly intervene in the governance of football and would prefer an effective system of self-regulation.
The Government has finally lost patience with the slowness of the Football Association in putting its house in order. It has told football’s governing body to sort itself out by the end of February or face legislation. Successive governments have always been reluctantly to directly intervene in the governance of football and would prefer an effective system of self-regulation.
The news came in the Government’s response to the recent House of Commons select committee report on the future of football. As well as various changes in the internal governance of the FA, the Government wants a new licensing system for clubs devised by the FA working with the leagues that would keep a check on debt and financial sustainability. This would include a more robust version of the fit and proper person test which has been criticised as inadequate for some time.
Whilst emphasising his reluctance to legislate, sports minister Hugh Robertson said that 29th February 2012 was ‘an absolute deadline for [the FA] to bring forward proposals to say how they are going to implement this report.’