Blueprint for change put to FA

The Football Association were holding an executive board meeting today, less than 24 hours after being handed a blueprint for radical changes to the running of the game by the Premier League.

Three of the Premier League’s four representatives on the 12-man FA board were among a delegation that met leading FA figures, including chief executive Adam Crozier, yesterday.

They are understood to have presented the FA with a plan to give the Premier League greater control over the professional game.

This would include the establishment of a ‘professional game board’, encompassing representatives from the Premier League and Football League, but not the FA or the amateur game.

The FA board currently includes four Premier League representatives, two from the Football League and six from the amateur game.

However, the Premier League are unhappy at a variety of issues within the game, including the commercial and international demands being made on their England players, as well as control of the game’s finances.

They are said to want the revenues generated by the FA Cup and England internationals to be split equally between the FA and the professional game after the deduction of expenses.

The FA were unable to confirm whether the issue would be discussed at the pre-planned board meeting, with the other option being for Crozier and FA chairman Geoff Thompson to consider their response before a debate and possible vote takes place.

One report has so far stated that the Premier League will attempt to force the changes through at the day-long meeting, while another has claimed that a ‘halt to hostilities’ was called late last night.

However, the issue is not expected to become any clearer until after today’s meeting, with both sides awaiting developments before making any public comment.

Some chairmen are more militant than others, threatening to boycott the FA Cup or remove their England players from next month’s scheduled get-together if their demands are not met, while others are searching for a compromise.

The issue is nevertheless still a serious one as the major changes being envisaged by some Premier League figures could significantly reduce the FA’s sphere of influence within the game.

The issue came to a head last week when the FA announced the agreement of a lucrative bonus deal with the England players for their share of commercial revenues, with the clubs claiming they were not properly consulted in advance.

The FA privately insist they have not acted improperly and that they are merely looking after the best interests of the game for all parties.

The matter has nevertheless been bubbling under the surface for several months, with Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein – a Premier League representative on the FA board and an FA vice-chairman – recently spelling out the issues at stake.

Dein said last month: “Nobody is talking about withdrawing from the FA Cup but, having said that, there are issues which the Premier League wish to address with the FA.

“Over the coming months, those issues will be discussed intelligently with a view to finding a reasonable solution acceptable to both parties.

“The main elements are the distribution of profits from the FA Cup itself, whether clubs should be paid for the release of players for international duty - for which there are arguments on both sides – and players’ image rights.

“There is no doubt that the FA are becoming more commercial, but it is a not-for-profit organisation which ploughs the money back into the game for the benefit of everybody.

“The delicate area is whether they are cutting across the clubs’ commercial interests and that has to be addressed.

“Now football has reached such a level of interest and the salaries clubs are paying are at their height, so obviously they are looking to recoup as much as they can.

“But the principal point is that we want to respect the FA Cup as a competition and, if it went to a vote tomorrow, I’m sure every club would want to enter it even though there are still issues to be discussed.”