Britain’s sports minister, Gerry Sutcliffe, has told the Football Association (FA) to speed up the implementation of the reforms recommended by the Burns enquiry and warned of a cut in grassroots funding if it is not done.
Lord Burns’ report into the state of English soccer’s governing body four years ago recommended, amongst other things, the introduction of two non-executive directors on to the board, acceleration of reform of the “largely white, ageing and male” FA Council and development of the women’s game at the top level.
Sutcliffe told yesterday’s Guardian newspaper that he had written to the FA demanding immediate action and suggested that government funding, which particularly helps to support junior and grass-roots soccer, could be cut or withdrawn.
“Funding is one lever we’ve got. It would be a last resort. But there has to be, and there already is, a recognition that the status quo is not good enough,” Sutcliffe told the newspaper. “[The FA] must use this opportunity to put their house in order. If that doesn’t happen the influence of the FA will diminish and football as a sport will suffer.”
In the letter delivered on Wednesday to FA chairman Lord Triesman, Football League chairman Lord Mawhinney and Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore, Sutcliffe stressed the need for the organizations to work more closely together.
It praises the Premier League and Football League for the progress made on financial transparency and developing home-grown players and raised a series of financial proposals for further discussion — including the question of how the game’s income should be distributed beyond the Premier League.
It also said the government will call for a unified “fit and proper person test” across all 92 clubs.
The FA responded by saying the letter would be carefully studied.
“The issues raised by the original questions and the minister’s response represent important challenges to the game at all levels,” an FA spokesman said. “They merit careful thought and a proper response with football working together in partnership.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier