FA’s clear thinking after botched reform and a mess of flow charts

Reform: Martin Glenn announced that the FA will adopt the Rooney Rule
Dan Mullan/Getty Images
Tony Evans12 January 2018

Across London, the same message was being pumped out on Tuesday by two institutions that have struggled to gain the trust of the public. Compare and contrast these two statements.

“We need to reflect what the country looks like,” is a straightforward assertion. The other is more tortuous: “Organically, we have been diversifying just because of natural selection and people coming through.”

The first was Nadhim Zahawi, the new education minister, trying to put a gloss on Theresa May’s botched Cabinet reshuffle. The second is from Martin Glenn, the FA’s chief executive, explaining the rationale for the set of proposals produced by English football’s ruling body to increase inclusiveness, accountability and openness in the national game.

Leaving aside Glenn’s ability to turn a positive, uncomplicated manifesto into gobbledigook, the FA are more likely to achieve their aims than the Government.

The Rooney Rule — ensuring that qualified BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) candidates are at least considered and interviewed for the organisation’s jobs — attracted most publicity, as well hostility from those who choose to wilfully misunderstand its intention and execution. Yet it was just part of a raft of measures that, if followed through, will make football more accessible and reflective of the people who play and support it.

This is not the first attempt at sweeping reorganisation of the sport. These initiatives do not quite come around with the regularity of leap years but they are almost as frequent. Football remains overwhelmingly “male and pale” as Herman Ouseley, the chairman of Kick It Out, has said. Efforts to change the face of the FA have had limited success.

There is a difference in yesterday’s communique. Lord Burns’s structural review of the ruling body in 2005 was supposed to be groundbreaking. The only thing it broke was the will of those who believed it would make a difference.

It focused on the wrong things. It was a mess of flow charts, policy developments, strategic planning and business units. Somewhere, behind all the pomposity, there was a game. That has often been forgotten among the conflicting interests.

Lord Triesman swept into office as chairman three years later with another blueprint but his era was less defined by a revamp of the system than the hapless 2018 World Cup bid. Greg Dyke limped away from his tenure as chairman two years ago after a bruising battle to change the nature of the FA Council.

Glenn and his colleagues have been forced into devising their plans by the racism and sexual scandals of the past few months and increased scrutiny from Parliament.

The encouraging thing about the response is that it has concentrated on people rather than finances and internal politics. It is not quite a manifesto for the People’s Game but it is a step forward.

Engagement and development at grassroots level is a priority; bringing young people, women and disabled participants to the game — and protecting them — is a clear aim.

The intention is to sweep away the opaqueness that has bedevilled the organization. There is even a plan to stream FA Council meetings. That would be truly eyeopening for the public.

Football has always been a good barometer for the nation’s mood. Harold Wilson blamed the 1970 World Cup quarter-final defeat by West Germany — England had led 2-0 before conceding three times — for Labour losing the General Election.

Wilson had expected to win by a landslide but was kicked out of office at the polls four days after the match. The Luis Suarez and John Terry racism controversies in 2011 and the incident where Chelsea fans refused to allow a black Parisian on to a Metro train in the French capital three years ago were harbingers of the growing intolerance that has characterised Brexit Britain.

The FA’s attempt to focus on transparency, openness, inclusion and accountability could be a similar straw in a wind that helps dissipate the meanness. The message that change is in the air is at least more believable coming from Wembley than from Downing Street.

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