You can just imagine the conversation, can’t you? ”Phew … that was a near miss — we nearly had to investigate something sleazy in football … But wait a minute, have you seen what that nasty chap at this team in Ryman League Division Two has done? The naughty so-and-so — he’s gone and sworn at the linesman … We’ll soon sort him out … Let me get my sledgehammer to crack this nut.”
You could smell the sense of relief descending over 25 Soho Square when the Premier League’s chief executive Richard Scudamore and secretary Mike Foster decided that their organisation would investigate the Ashley Cole ”tapping” row.
The top two clubs in the country slugging it out over who did what and when and where — with not even a raised eyebrow or apparent public voice of concern from the Football Association (FA). Scudamore and Foster should be applauded for grasping the nettle. Perhaps the Premier League submission to the Burns inquiry does have merit after all.
Now there may be a very credible argument that says this was a dispute between two Premier League clubs about a Premier League player, so it’s only right and proper that the Premier League should ”investigate” it. Then again, if that’s the case, why are we bothering to have a team of ”investigators” only a mile down the other end of Oxford Street?
What seems to have gone amiss in all this is FA Rule F1. This clearly states that the FA shall have the power to monitor the compliance by each participant and the rules and regulations of each affiliated association and competition to which a participant is subject and inquire into any incident, facts or matters, which may constitute misconduct under these rules. Furthermore, in carrying out those functions, the FA has the power to require the attendance of any participant to answer questions and provide information and produce documentation.
The Premier League’s rules are slightly different and it does not have an in-house investigative team. Instead, it pays out thousands for teams of solicitors to come in and investigate. Should we read more into that? Was it the case that the Premier League didn’t have the confidence to pass it over to the FA?
We’ll never know unless, of course, they decide to tell us. Either way this should have been the FA’s baby, and I don’t care what argument is put up to rebut that.
So there it is in black and white — the FA always had the power to investigate this matter. For reasons best known to itself it decided not to — yet another indication of the power the Premier League holds over the FA.
Having said that, it is crystal clear that the agents involved in this matter played a pivotal role in whatever did or did not take place. And who is responsible for the conduct of the agents? Not the Premier League, but the FA. I assume that is why no action was taken against agents in this particular inquiry because that’s not the Premier League’s role.
Here was the golden opportunity the FA had been waiting for. The real chance to get involved in the so-called ”war on agents” that everyone in the game professes to want to tackle. So ask yourself … is the will really there?
All the ingredients of this mix are connected to one another, so in my opinion there is no reason at all why the FA didn’t take it on lock, stock and barrel. I know if this had occurred in my time there I would have been champing at the bit to get stuck into it.
Eighteen months ago, the Jockey Club was the laughing stock of the sports industry over the manner in which it dealt with the aroma of sleaze that had always hung over its sport. It took the bull by the horns and appointed a former high-level Scotland Yard detective. But now, just look at the results: the profile and reputation that the club has established after a full review of the manner in which it conducts investigations.
Surely the FA has missed a golden chance to go some way to restoring the tarnished image in this area by appearing to ignore what happened in this sordid affair. Perhaps it will close the stable door once the horse has bolted and announce an inquiry into the conduct of the agents, but that will be too little too late. After all, whatever questions the FA wants to ask of anyone in this matter will no doubt have been asked in the Premier League’s inquiry, and so any answer will already have been given. Not a lot there to investigate then, is there?
The outcome and any penalty do not matter. The role of any investigator is to put before the tribunal or judiciary the evidence that is sufficient to convict. It’s not the investigator’s job to decide the punishment. It’s a simple case of dealing with it and proving it — and then it’s ”job done”. Sadly, that job never got done at the right level this time.
Lord Burns, Brian Barwick, Richard Caborn and anybody else with a desire to clean up football should act now and follow the Jockey Club’s lead. Forget about any increase in resources to challenge Joe Soap in the Ryman League for minor indiscretions, and concentrate on the real issues that are affecting this beautiful game. — Â