“Without government support, a shakeup of football’s archaic regulatory structure will achieve nothing,” you say (Editorial, 13 December). That is why in 2004 Lord Burns was asked to review the governance of football jointly by the government and the FA. This government-initiated independent review resulted, contrary to press speculation, in the FA accepting the Burns report recommendations, ie appointment of an independent chair; creation of a new board with two non-executives; establishing a new regulation and compliance unit to carry out the enforcement of the FA; creation of two new subsidiaries – the Community Football Alliance and the Professional Football Alliance; and expanding the current FA Council into a “parliament of football”, which will include players, managers, referees and supporters.
As the sports minister in October 2006, I welcomed the FA Council’s acceptance of the Burns recommendations as “a step in the right direction”, but fully acknowledging that more would need to be done. So it’s unfortunate that the three past independent chairs of the FA have chosen to write to the select committee, after leaving the job, calling for government intervention rather than to have initiated a further review with government support to build on the modernisation changes that brought them into office.
The present government proposal to modernise the governance of sport, including the FA and making compliance dependant on government funding, is welcomed. But it is true that even these reforms may not be adequate to address the power of the Premier League, which is the main point of the past chairmen’s letter to the select committee, a power in football which has successfully grown financially four-fold in the 12 years since Burns. I would suggest these concerns and others in football should be addressed by an independent review similar to the one led by Lord Burns. In my experience sport is better self-regulated with government support rather than by government-imposed regulation.
Richard Caborn
Sports minister, 2001-2007
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