No-one would have predicted recent events, but a generational opportunity now exists to improve the financial sustainability and governance of the game.
It now needs to get real. This is clearly the plan in the next few months, starting with the Queen’s Speech tomorrow, leading to the Levelling Up paper.
It’s already about more than narrow questions of governance – and should expand to cover the role clubs play in local communities.
We wondered why no effort was made to square the Government. Perhaps the Culture Select Committee can establish whether it was – and what happened.
[Editor’s warning: as the author of the famous originals pointed out, “there is wishful thinking in Hell as well as on Earth”.]
The idea was floated by the Government in September of 2020, but so far nothing has materialised.
The National League needs to get organised, and compete for a fair share of the Sport Recovery Package.
It’s not surprising that I do things differently, since I came to the role from a business background, rather than via the world of politics.
The success in procurement and distribution prompts the question of what else we are outstandingly good at.
The devolved Adult Education Budget ensures that every pound delivers more qualifications that employers actually want.
Councils can promote allotments, tennis courts, walkways and cycling paths. It’s about social prescribing and understanding community needs.
The right to it must be championed even when – no: especially when – remarks are made that we find reprehensible.
Making GRCs making GRCs available on demand would destabilise all manner of legal structures, from equal pay to sex discrimination law to criminal law.
I’ll always passionately support the side – but both it and the FA risk alienating the majority of decent football fans.