Britain’s government wants change but will it enforce it, and is it asking the right questions

Insideworldfootball

It would be foolish in the extreme to believe that just because the Commons Select Committee on Culture Media and Sport has given the football authorities a bollocking, things will change in the national game. This may be the second verbal lashing the MPs have administered football in two years but just because the MPs wave a big stick it does not mean they will follow up by using it to whack the football authorities if, as so often in the past, football does nothing.

Here it is worth recalling what John Whitingdale, chairman of the committee, told me back in July 2011 when the committee looked at the bidding for 2018 World Cup. His words were: "I am instinctively against government intervention. The government has an awful lot on its plate, the state of English football is a lesser priority than improving the welfare state and the NHS. I don't think there will be a great wish for legislation."