Blundering Harvey’s key World Cup role

THE FA are trusting Shaun Harvey to choose the ambassadors who will accompany England to the World Cup, despite the Football League chief executive not even sitting on the FA council.

The selection of delegates for the three World Cup group matches has become highly sensitive. The Government’s relationship with Russia is at rock bottom due to suspicions that the Kremlin may have been involved in the nerve agent assassination attempt in Salisbury on Sunday.

So it seems astonishing that an FA outsider in Harvey, who had to explain a succession of botched Carabao Cup draws this season, has been given such a responsibility with an international crisis potentially looming.

Harvey’s unlikely influence has come about because the Football League and the Premier League now alternate in providing the FA with leadership of various committees, including chairing the Professional Game ambassador panel from which some England match delegates are chosen.

Along with Harvey’s panel picks, the FA delegation — flying in and out for each match — will include members of the FA board, who each have the chance to attend one group game. The FA declined to comment on Harvey’s role.