The FA before Parliament; breathtakingly second rate
Today’s performance before the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee from four senior figures from the Football Association, including the Chair and Chief Executive, Greg Clarke and Martin Glenn, would have given second rate a bad name. I have scarcely seen a more unconvincing, risible excuse for leadership from any organisation. I have scarcely seen a more incredible appearance before a committee of parliament. And yet, we have seen this sort of hopelessness from the FA for years.It would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic and so serious. Let us remind ourselves, as well as reputations we are talking here about safeguarding, racism and discrimination claims. This is not about football, it is about human rights.
The Committee did a good job at holding these senior executives to account for a catalogue of inadequacy, bordering on rank incompetence, possibly even malicious, deliberate underperformance. I watched and listened open-mouthed. Language matters as Committee members pointed out and tone and body language matters. The Chair, Mr Greg Clarke, demonstrated a level of smug and patronising tone that made my hair stand on end. Constant use of passive language; “there have been failings”. Evaisve. Arrogant. Finger pointing at the committee. Interrupting. Self serving, self-satisfied monologues. Totally and utterly unacceptable on every possible level. The most damning thing than can said about this shower – as my friend Martin has rightly said today – is that they are useless. Totally useless. They don’t get it and cannot deal with it. Useless.
Mr Glenn should be looking for other work. He is clearly not up to the job of leading an organisation receiving tens of millions of pounds of public money and holding in their hands – just – the trust of millions to be custodians of the national game. Mr Clarke should be asked for his resignation by the Secretary of State – when he clears his office he could take with him his high opinion of himself, which we saw throughout his evidence today. The FA needs to be nationalised, overhauled and relaunched with new leadership and new governance structures.
It makes so so angry to see such a collection of failing leaders in a failing organisation acting like they are the victims of circumstances. It makes me so angry to hear excuse after excuse and a total unwillingness to take it on the chin and say they messed this up – time and time again. In makes me so angry that the national game is in their hands. It doesn’t just make me angry, it totally sickens me.
In football terms, watching today’s hearing was like watching a pub team playing at Wembley. It is time someone calls time on this pathetic excuse for an organisation and its third rate leaders.
#ben2b40
Photo taken from the BBC Sport website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/41663009
So what actually happens next? The nation has seen for itself the buttock-clenching and embarrassing ineptitude and lack of professionalism of Greg Clarke and Martin Glenn, neither of whom can see anything beyond their own arrogance, self-importance, self-interest and apparent inability to get to grips with what the Select Committee has put to them. How can they justify their substantial salaries and corporate benefits? 15 months ago Glenn was on record as being keen to look carefully at issues of performance-related pay in terms of England managers. Perhaps the public would be interested to know what his view would be in respect of his own performance at the FA? Whilst he may have performed adequately while CEO in the commercial corporate worlds of biscuits, crisps and Captain Birdseye, he is now working [sic] in a world where he should be more accountable to the public [virtual shareholders] as a CEO of an organisation which embraces so many dreams of the nation, whether as footballers or spectators. After all, not so long ago he spoke about what he would bring to his “work at the FA as we look to inspire everyone to be involved in what is the nation’s most watched and played team sport.” Some inspiration he and his FA partner in evasiveness and twentieth century ethical principles have proven to be!