No one could predict a global pandemic but as the supposed guardians of our game the FA should have put money aside for a rainy day STAN COLLYMORE

AT the start of last week, muffled out in part by the cacophony from Liverpool’s first title triumph in 30 years, came what could arguably be the biggest story in English football for the decade to come.

The FA announced 124 jobs would be lost as they looked to plug the £300million black hole in their accounts caused by the pandemic.

And while those cuts are unlikely to affect the senior set-ups in either the men’s or women’s games, below them significant decisions, which will have profound impacts on every other level of our game, will have to be made. What that means for grassroots football, an area of the game already creaking under pressure, worries me greatly.

Likewise for the women’s game that has made great strides in recent years.

Fortunes

I also worry about what it will mean when it comes to the promoting of and opportunities for BAME coaches and managers.

So much has been done in the last five years to combat the problems we had in each of those areas – and many other areas of the game, too.

And yet all that work could now be undone because an organisation which ought to be swimming in money hasn’t put any – or at least anywhere near enough – away for a rainy day.

The FA has made fortunes in recent years and not only should they be on a decent enough footing to cover Wembley’s costs, but they should still be able to put some serious money into the game even in times like these.

But just as there were some Premier League clubs who found themselves bang in trouble the moment there was no live football or no other form of stadium revenue, so the FA now finds itself in the same boat.

I don’t blame those who have been in office for the past five or six years because the work the organisation has done in fixing problems on and off the field in that time has been great.

What sticks in the craw, though, are the years before it, when money was flying in from the Premier League and yet humungous sums were spent on Wembley, silly sums squandered on such as Fabio Cappello.

Problem

We were supposed to tap into the Italian’s footballing brain, but instead we tapped only into his bank account and love of fine art.

We have moved in the right direction of late, but the fundamental problem