Battles ahead for Crozier's FA makeover

That this document, a statement of broad, progressive aims with little detail, represents a genuine Lancaster Gate landmark, is a sad reflection on the years of shortsighted self-interest which have passed for football governance for too long.

Some of his proposals have made headlines: the intention to introduce compulsory licensing of managers and coaches; to follow the work of the Football Task Force by installing a Financial Compliance Unit and consumer relations system at the FA; to transform womens football into a professionalised spectator sport.

But Crozier stresses that the detail is yet to be worked out, mostly over the next 100 days. This document is intended to represent a considered vision, for what footballs governing body should stand for and do in the modern era. 

"At most companies it is standard to have a strategic plan," he says, "but at the FA there was no such thing."

He also inherited a near-dysfunctional internal structure, which he proposes reorganising into four main departments with clear responsiblities, all reporting to him. Sad to say, such direction is an innovation at the FA, and has been welcomed by many of the FA's staff, although there is concern at a clearly stated intention by Crozier to "release" people he feels are not right for the FA's new future.

Use the power of football to build a better future
Supporters and those at the grass roots who have despaired for years at the paucity of the FA's vision will fall with pathetic gratitude on Croziers document. Its "Vision Statement": "To use the power of football to build a better future" may feel a touch too Saatchi for comfort, but the vision itself is genuinely refreshing, free of the business and moneymaking obsession which has dominated footballs output so depressingly for most of the last decade. 

Crozier envisages the game, at all levels, as a focus for communities, for bringing people together, breaking down divisions of race, and as a vehicle for wider education. He states that football must "understand the role it plays as part of the fabric of life in England", and "Reflect what football can put back into society". He stresses the FAs commitment to serve the grass roots as well as the elite represented by the England team. There is little in his CV which obviously prepared the public, or football itself, for so communal a vision. 

"It is what I passionately believe," he says. "I had a fantastic time playing football at the grass roots. This is about giving many more people the opportunity to have the same experience, and about using football as a wider force for good." 

His document says that the FA must be "more open and accountable" and have "a closer relationship with our customers  fans", and that, overall, it must: "Regain leadership of the Peoples Game." 

Yet this begs a question: regain leadership from whom? Crozier sidesteps this, and is reluctant to acknowledge potential problems, particularly with the Premier League, which has become super-rich and increasingly powerful since the FA fatefully backed its 1992 breakaway. 

"We have to get away from all these divisions," says Crozier. "We are working very closely with the Leagues towards doing the right things.There is a great deal of unity on many of these issues."

Yet gloomier realities are already visible over Croziers warm view of the football world. This week the Premier League itself protested it had not been consulted about Croziers document: 

"There is much in it which we support," said spokesman Mike Lee, "but many of the proposals require the consent of the clubs, and we were not consulted on it as thoroughly as we would have liked." 

It is also understood that there was anger amongst the four Premier League representatives who now sit on the FA's Main Board: Dave Richards (ex-Sheffield Wednesday), David Dein (Arsenal), Ken Bates (Chelsea) and Peter Ridsdale (Leeds), who felt they were bounced into a fait accompli at their meeting on Monday, which they believed had been called to agree Croziers document. 

The power of the Premier League, installed now at the heart of FA decision-making and inhabiting a different financial universe from the rest of the game, is an inescapable fact which Crozier will inevitably have to negotiate if he is to realise his admirable vision.

It also underpins the division in the Task Force, five of whom, signatories to the majority report which called in December for tough, independent regulation with sanctions, today meet Chris Smith, Minister for Culture Media and Sport and Sports Minister Kate Hoey. They will press their case for a regulatory regime of independent members, with powers of investigation and sanctions, and Dr Adam Brown, who has led much of the supporters argument, will argue the authorities cannot be trusted. 

Both Smith and Hoey are understood to be impressed with Crozier, whose document goes further than the minority authorities report published in December, acknowledging that a Financial Compliance Unit and customer relations structure in the FA must be: "More powerful and investigative," and "be seen by the Government to have a clear regulatory structure with teeth." 

"Where necessary," says Crozier, although reluctant to discuss details, "we recognise that a regime must be backed by sanctions." 

Insiders say that if he can convince the Ministers that the new regulatory regime at the FA will be genuinely tough, the Ministers are likely to give him a chance to implement it. This is the likely recommendation of Task Force vice-chairman Lord Faulkener, another who is cheered by Croziers plans. 

"If the FA can introduce a regime substantial enough to prevent abuses and meet supporters legitimate concerns," Faulkener said yesterday, "then I believe the Government should give them a chance." 

Ministers are likely to set a trial period, probably two years, for the FA to prove it can practically prevent financial abuses at clubs or the sort of appalling supporter relations demonstrated by Newcastle Uniteds legal battle with a section of their bond holders. Ministers are likely to reserve the option of legislating for a football regulator if FA-led self-regualtion is seen to fail. 

Such an outcome will disappoint some within the Task Force majority, but their determined work has been largely responsible for dragging the authorities into having to promise meaningful self-regulation. Croziers strategic document is part of this process, overflowing with the wonder and positive force of football, but recognising shortcomings in its administration, stating a determination to reform it for the wider good.

Refreshing as it is, though, Crozier is still only eight weeks into the job, and his honeymoon period is certain to dissolve into inevitable battles ahead with the games commercial vested interests. It is to be hoped that his early vision, expressed in this document, which arrived this week as a breath of fresh air, like a tie-less man in a chamber of blazers, will survive these battles intact, and usher in a better future for the game.