EFL clubs irked by Harvey’s away day
THERE is some annoyance among the 72 Football League clubs that their chief executive Shaun Harvey should be part of the FA delegation in Amsterdam for tonight’s friendly against Holland.
A number of clubs believe Harvey should be working on EFL business rather than going on an FA trip when he isn’t even a member of the FA council and there are no Football League players in Gareth Southgate’s senior England squad.
Harvey is now in a position — through it being the Football League’s turn to head the Professional Game Board — to choose which ambassadors represent the FA at England matches.
And for the first away game since he became the delegate selector, Harvey’s chosen himself and PL chairman Peter McCormack, who at least has top-flight representatives on show at the Johan Cruyff Arena. One lower-league chairman said: ‘What on earth is Shaun Harvey doing on an FA junket abroad when the Football League have so many problems to sort out at home.’
A Football League spokesman said Harvey would be meeting people in Holland who could prove beneficial to the League, as has happened on previous FA trips. RYAN GIGGS going all the way to China for his first game as Wales manager is a lot to do with Sonny Coleman, son of previous Welsh boss Chris Coleman. Coleman junior is a football agent working for the London-based Emanuele Palladino at the Distinct Agency, who have developed strong links in China and negotiated Wales’ involvement in the China Cup, which included a financial incentive if Gareth Bale played.
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RITCHIE made the same ‘the buck stops with me’ comment after extending Stuart Lancaster’s contract before the 2015 Rugby World Cup that his successor Steve Brown did this week as he backed Eddie Jones. Yet Ritchie, despite a home World Cup that couldn’t have gone worse for England, did not fall on his sword afterwards, waiting 22 months before temporarily retiring from rugby. Brown is the only CEO of the big three sports who is also line manager for the national team coach. The FA’s Martin Glenn has Gareth Southgate reporting to technical director Dan Ashworth, as England cricket coach Trevor Bayliss does to Andrew Strauss. Jones’ review farce
THE Rugby Players’ Association were put forward by RFU chief Steve Brown as the vehicle through which players concerns around England’s Six Nations fiasco could be raised when head coach Eddie Jones presents his review next month.
Yet RPA chief Damian Hopley has made clear he doesn’t go out actively trying to gauge players’ reaction after a tournament and does not believe a third party should interfere with Jones’ regime. So, in effect, the worst performance by an England side in the tournament for 31 years is going to have the head coach who presided over the debacle being wholly in control of the review into it.
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RFU are at least addressing the ridiculous situation of having 17 England players doing commercial appearances after the defeat by Ireland. Twickenham’s new, £66million hospitality facility that opens this autumn will put even more pressure on player appearances. But the RFU are looking at utilising former England stars in that corporate role. The RFU gave the impression this week that the RPA had organised some of those 17 appearances. But it transpires three players went to a joint commercial venture between the RPA and the RFU while the other 14 were all fulfilling RFU sponsorship duties.