NO SAMPSON... AND NO REASON TO BACK MPs

NO Mark sampson. Maybe he was asked and didn’t want to go. Perhaps he thought it could undermine his case for wrongful dismissal. Either way, another investigation into his interaction with Eni Aluko and others has taken place without one of the key protagonists.

The FA were not initially interested in talking to the players who were offended by sampson’s actions, the Commons select committee were not concerned to hear sampson’s side. They handed Aluko and other witnesses a platform, quite rightly, and would have known the FA would serve sampson up to save their own skins, because this is exactly what they did when they sacked him.

so the Commons hearing was equally skewed, just in another direction.

This is no defence of sampson, but investigations at least listen to both sides, and amid the dismal cover-up and the subsequent political grandstanding few have appeared greatly interested in that. The FA have handled this affair catastrophically and senior executives at the organisation have as good as forfeited their right to be trusted on some very important issues, but let’s not kid ourselves about the parliamentarians either.

Considering the confusion in the country post-Brexit the current state of political governance is no better than that of the FA.

We may not have yet identified the right people to take football forward; but we can safely say they’re not in Westminster.