The chairman of Kick It Out has criticised the Football Association’s planned reforms, branding them unfair and superficial.
On Monday, the FA outlined its vision for the future – in response to the House of Commons passing a no confidence motion in the governing body last month. The FA’s blueprint contains a pledge to reserve three positions on the board for women and introduce a nine-year limit on membership. However, those plans have failed to impress Lord Ouseley, who said they failed to address black and minority ethnic representation.
“These reforms will no doubt satisfy those who are making demands on the FA, such as the department for culture, media and sport select committee, Sport England and UK Sport, but these long-overdue reforms won’t satisfy minority groups,” he said. “By prioritising women on boards, all other protected groups are being left behind. It is quite right for women to be progressing but these reforms need to be across the board and not just directed at women.
“The same people still run the main authorities and professional clubs. Until we see real change and inclusion in these positions of power, changes are likely to just be superficial. After decades of campaigning for change, that is a crying shame.
“The lack of BAME managers and coaches is still a huge issue in the English game. There has been talk for so long but we see so little actual change.”
Greg Clarke, the FA chairman, has said he will step down if his response fails to convince the sports minister, Tracey Crouch, he is serious about reforming the organisation. His plans also proposed reducing the size of the board from 12 to 10, with the addition of 11 members to the FA Council “to ensure it better reflects the inclusive and diverse nature of English football,” as well as ensuring all council members are active members in the game and cannot be elected after the age of 65.
“This set of proposals has overachieved on what I thought was possible,” said Clarke, who visited every county FA .
“I’m hopeful we will get a fair hearing. If they say this is unacceptable, I don’t know who is going to do better and if you trust government to come in and run football, yabba dabba doo, let them have a go.”
He added: “Is it 100% of what [the government] is looking for? No. But if you ask me it’s nine out of 10. It falls clearly into the zone of it being capable of acceptance. If you want to do a deal, this is great progress, it’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fundamentally change the way football works and this deal is there to be done. If you don’t want to do a deal, you can find something in there to fall out about.”
Sport England has yet to pay the majority of the £30m grant it awarded for grassroots football in 2013 as the government waits to see what reforms are introduced by the FA in response to criticisms of its structure. Heather Rabbatts is the only woman on the board and Clarke said he was committed to altering the perception the FA remains an organisation run by ‘blazer power’.
“My principal objective has been to do what’s right by football and try to make it better,” he said. “When you talk to people across football and you ask them: How can we make it better? How can we make it more representative of the people who play the game? How can we get more women and more people from BAME backgrounds on to the council and board, make it younger, more progressive? They all buy into those objectives. They don’t resist them at all.”
Despite that, Clarke fell short of guaranteeing black and ethnic minorities would have a presence on the board – a condition not stipulated in Sport England’s code.
“I have been deluged by what I perceive to be reasonable outrage by people who think the code should’ve considered that diversity is more than just women,” he said. “I did not write the code. If I had written the code, it would’ve had more of an emphasis on ethnic diversity, because I believe in that just as strong as I do in empowering women. But, let’s be realistic. All we’re being asked to do is have three out of 10.
“Maybe we could find a way to make sure the rest of them aren’t just white, middle-aged blokes and we should try to find some room for BAME people on there as well. If you ask me if I’m committed to it, yes. I just can’t break down exactly how I’m going to achieve it today but I’m going to be accountable for achieving it.”
The proposals will be outlined to an FA Council meeting on Tuesday before being presented to Sport England. If acceptable, the reforms will be voted into FA regulations at May’s annual general meeting.
