Cook: Root ready to lead
ALASTAIR COOK admitted he has started to ‘have questions’ about his future as England’s Test captain — and backed Joe Root to succeed him if he steps down. England suffered a crushing innings-and-36-run defeat by India in the fourth Test here to go 3-0 down in the series. Asked if a defeat as demoralising as yesterday’s in Mumbai would contribute to his decision, Cook said: ‘Yeah, you start having questions, of course you do — naturally, you look at stuff.’ Later asked if Root could do the job, Cook was unequivocal. ‘I think Joe Root’s ready to captain England,’ he said. ‘He’s got the respect of the changing room.’
Sportsmail columnist and former England captain Nasser Hussain, however, warned Cook: ‘The day you stop being England captain is the day a piece of you is taken away for ever.’
THE poorly conceived attempt by five former heads of English football to bring about FA governance reform through a political regulator has managed the triple whammy of angering the FA, Premier League and Government.
Premier League executive chairman Richard Scudamore told the BBC last night: ‘People who should know better making those comments is completely crazy.’
The Premier League also stated how ‘they kept patience when past chairmen and chief executives at the FA failed to deliver’, showing their irritation at being held responsible for the FA’s failure to modernise. Also causing annoyance is the claim by the Wembley Five that the ‘FA is compelled to contribute tens of millions to the Premier League which could go to grassroots’.
This is understood to be FA Cup prize-money won by Premier League clubs. Yet the FA would face an even harder task keeping up the status of their flagship competition if it lowered the prize fund, which is more beneficial to nonLeague and lower league clubs in any case.
The FA have also been dismissive of the publicity drive from their former grandees. FA chairman Greg Clarke, in a letter to councillors, called the noise especially ‘ill-judged’ during the current sex abuse crisis. He also pointed out the ‘appropriate mechanism’, according to Minister for Sport Tracey Crouch, was making the FA compliant with the new Sport England governance code. The FA will have to show reform progress by April or risk losing £30million of government funding for grass-roots football.
Whitehall is annoyed that grandstanding DCMS Select Committee chairman Damian Collins chose to deflect attention away from the work already being done by Crouch to force FA change without the need for a Government regulator. BARNSLEY director and FA life vice-president Barry Taylor (right), one of the ‘elderly white men who do not represent anyone but block even the most minor of changes’ has hit back at his five former FA colleagues. Taylor intends to write to FIFA highlighting the proposed government interference, about which Zurich have strict regulations. Taylor said: ‘It is the view of many in football that the appointment of FA independent chairmen hasn’t been a success. None of the three of Lord Triesman, David Bernstein or Greg Dyke has been given a second term for various reasons. ‘And FA executives David Davies and Alex Horne should be ashamed of themselves. They have both taken large salaries from the FA and said nothing at the time. As for their 25 FA life vice-presidents, there are only 22, six of whom are no longer involved in any FA activity and three others have no voting rights. That leaves 13 LVPs, who all offered to give up their voting entitlements but Greg Dyke turned us down.’