Football
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Clarke will step down if proposed Football Association reforms fail

Football Association chairman Greg Clarke has promised to step down if he fails to convince sports minister Tracey Crouch that the governing body is serious about reforming itself.

However, Clarke has strongly denied the FA, which will be scrutinised in Parliament this week, is failing the national game.

His pledge to change the FA's governance structure or leave comes before the House of Commons debates a motion of "no confidence'' in the association's ability to reform.

That debate on Thursday afternoon has been secured by Damian Collins MP, the chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport select committee which has published two reports in recent years calling for an overhaul of the FA's board and council.

But in a 700-word open letter published on Tuesday, Clarke wrote: "Our governance needs changing. We do need to be more diverse, more open about decision-making and we do need to better represent those playing the game.

"But we are not sitting idly by. The FA has a set of proposals to improve our governance which we will ratify and then take to the minister of sport in order to get her approval. Change won't be easy, but I am confident it will happen -- and it will be substantial.

"Delivering real change is my responsibility and I firmly believe this is critical for the future of the game.

"If the Government is not supportive of the changes when they are presented in the coming months, I will take personal responsibility for that. I will have failed. I will be accountable for that failure and would in due course step down from my role.''

Clarke, who has only been in post for five months, refers to Thursday's debate as another of the "challenges'' he predicted when he took over, but there is no mistaking his annoyance it has come so soon.

That annoyance is shared within Government, with Crouch understood to believe the debate, which will not lead to a binding vote, is premature, given the fact she has asked the FA and other leading national governing bodies, to come back with reform proposals by the end of March.

This is part of her carrot-and-stick approach to make the leadership of British sport more accountable, transparent and diverse. The key to this is a new governance code, announced in October, that every organisation in receipt of public funding from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport must meet.

The FA received £30 million from Sport England between 2013-17 for grassroots football but has so far only been given £5.6m to support its disability and women's programmes for the next four years, with a decision on the rest of its grant hinging on Crouch's approval of reform plans.

Clarke and his team have tried to keep those under wraps but it is widely believed he would like to add two women to the board, bringing the total number of board members to 14, three of whom would be female. Four of the total would also be independent directors, providing more balance to the perceived power of the professional game.

Reform of the FA's 120-strong council, the game's so-called parliament, has proved to be beyond a long line of FA chairmen and its unwieldy and antiquated structure remains an open goal for the FA's critics.

But the FA believes the criticism, as on other issues, is overdone and Clarke rejects Collins' claims the governing body is no longer fit for purpose.

"In fact, I strongly dispute the motion put in front of Parliament that the FA is not meeting its duties as a governing body,'' continued Clarke. "I do hope those attending on Thursday make themselves aware of the FA's duties and the great work we are actually doing.''

He then lists that work, claiming that no other governing body in the world invests as much as it does, £65m last year, in grassroots football.

A former Leicester City chairman and Cable & Wireless chief executive, Clarke highlights the growth of women's football, now England's third most popular team sport in terms of participation behind men's cricket, as an example of the FA's success.

He also lists the £22m the FA is investing in facilities and makes the point football authorities in other countries rarely have to do this as it is paid out of general taxation.

Clarke does, however, acknowledge the FA's recurring weak spot, the men's national team, but believes the creation of a centre of excellence at St George's Park will help all of England's 24 men's, women's, disability and youth teams.

"I hope Thursday's debate genuinely reflects all the work of the FA and the positive impact football has in communities up and down England,'' Clarke concludes.

"I am also confident when the time comes to present our changes to the minister, she will agree we are making positive and pro-active change.''

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