Just over a month ago Greg Dyke, Chairman of the Football Association, ensured that he kept in line with the recent FA traditions of being ludicrous and incompetent by setting the national team the laughable target of winning the 2022 World Cup.
To aid in this impossible task Dyke decided to set up an ‘FA commission’.
Today, the state of the much-maligned commission is a shambles that is going from bad to worse.
This weekend the commission was criticised by both Heather Rabbatts and Helen Grant, the minister for sports and equality, for not being diverse enough.
An open letter from Rabbatts, the first female director appointed to the FA, prompted a swift response from the Dyke who decided to add more diversity to his all male 10-person commission…by adding two more men.
Admittedly, one of them was Rio Ferdinand – the first non-white male on the panel.
The FA and Dyke have claimed that the addition of Ferdinand was not a knee-jerk reaction, saying that his appointment had been in the pipeline for weeks and they just needed to check whether his schedule would allow it.
Does everyone really buy that?
The former England captain is one of two current footballers on the panel, and it is doubtful he has the same hectic schedule than the other: Ritchie Humphreys.
Humphreys balances playing and training for League 2 Chesterfield with being chairman of the PFA, whereas Ferdinand plays increasingly less at Manchester United and surely hires someone to handle his business affairs.
Coupled with the timing of the appointment – barely 24 hours after the criticism from Rabbat – it has all the hallmarks of a decision made in panic and haste.
If that is the case, and the appointment was made to increase the diversity of the panel members, then there are a couple of other candidates who would be better all round contributors.
You can’t argue with Ferdinand’s achievements in the game; he has won countless trophies with Manchester United and has captained the national side.
But, he has major doubts hanging over the non-footballing side of his life. For instance, in 2004 he was banned from all forms of the game for missing a drug test appointment.
This brings into question how good a role model he is to ethnic youngsters – a problem that Rabbat believed would emerge from a lack of diversity on the commission.
The FA have missed a trick by not approaching the one stand-out candidate that would be far more capable than Ferdinand: Clarke Carlisle.
The former Burnley defender, and Humphrey’s predecessor as PFA chairman has, in the last couple of days, criticised the timing of the appointments made to the commission.
Despite not reaching the heady heights of Ferdinand’s football career, his previous role with the PFA and knowledge of lower league football means he would be more aware of how football is run at all levels.
Add to this his title as ‘Britain’s Brainiest Footballer’ and his fight against depression and it is glaringly obvious that he would add a much more fuller view of football and the pressures of being a player as a whole.
However, Ferdinand is not the only strange appointment to the commission.
Howard Wilkinson and Danny Mills’ places are beyond belief.
Wilkinson hasn’t been relevant since his Leeds United side won the final English Championship before its reincarnation as the Premier League in 1992.
And Mills, despite being an England international, never reached the heights of another former England right-back, Gary Neville, who now sits on England’s coaching staff and is the most respected current football pundit.
It may be a case that, as reported, some targets have rebuffed the invitations – it was rumoured that Sir Alex Ferguson did just that.
But that calls into question the commission’s relevance even further if people are turning down the opportunity to help shape the future of English football.
While the FA got it very wrong in most places they did get a few of the appointments right.
Dario Gradi, for instance, has a rich history of grooming generation after generation of talented youngsters at Crewe Alexandra and has put in place a set up which has seen continued development of talent after his retirement.
Glenn Hoddle has worked hard since his acrimonious England departure in 1999 to develop his football academy giving footballers released from clubs a chance to develop their game and make a return to the game.
But these appointments don’t go far enough.
With the recent opening of St. George’s Park, the FA’s national centre intended to help develop players and coaches from all age ranges, it would have made more sense to hire somebody with previous knowledge of a national academy.
Somebody like Gerard Houllier, who was an integral part of Clairefontaine – the French equivalent to St George’s Park – during the nineties, would make more sense than Wilkinson.
If the aim is to develop a national identity for football teams of all ages, surely an approach for Johan Cruyff would make sense too.
The Dutch legend was part of the golden age of ‘Total Football’ in the 1970’s Dutch national team, and took this approach to both Ajax and Barcelona, where it has been developed to the envy of world football.
These potential appointments may go against the patriotic aim of developing an English footballing identity, but it might go some way to increasing the diversity of the commission.
They may also be pipe dreams but there are more realistic propositions like Dan Ashworth, who was appointed as the FA’s Elite Development Director after proving such a success at West Bromwich Albion.
The money spent on this commission could have been invested in developing young players and coaches, not only at St George’s, but spread across local football associations to subsidise costs and encourage increased participation from all sides.
To save this money the commission could have been set up with a much smaller group of permanent members and taken advice from a much wider range of sources.
Not only would this reduce costs but it would help avoid the diversity arguments currently being leveled at Dyke.
As it stands the commission is in dire straits and doesn’t have the confidence of the other FA members, let alone the nation.
But hey, all that will be forgotten if England lift the World Cup in nine years time.
Image courtesy of Casillero Del Diablo, with thanks
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