Nowhere to hide for EFL
It Is often possible to have sympathy for the football authorities over the limitations of the fit and proper persons tests.
After all, fans are given to see any new buyer as a saviour, even when the problems seem obvious from the outside.
Many of the owners now considered rogues in the Football League were once viewed positively. they were going to take the club to the next level. they had big plans, bold ideas.
And then there is Laurence Bassini. this is a man who has been declared bankrupt twice. An independent disciplinary commission found him guilty of misconduct and dishonesty relating to his time in charge of Watford, and he was banned from holding a position of authority at any Football League club for three years.
Yet here he is closing in on a takeover at Bolton — apparently without opposition from the governing body. this time there can be no hiding place if it goes wrong.
the Football League know exactly what they have got with Bassini; and they are responsible for whatever happens next. A fit and proper persons test should not just apply to owners.
NICK RUST, chief executive of the British Horseracing Authority, won few friends in the industry when he was considered to have compared National Hunt to bloodsports and other forms of animal cruelty. He did nothing of the sort. When he referenced ‘hunting, coursing, circuses, sea life and dolphins’ he was talking about public attitudes. He argued that if racing did not recognise changes in society, it could find itself, ruinously, in the same unwelcome bracket. Rust had a point. All eyes will be on Aintree this week and equine folk cannot afford to again be thought blase on the issue of horse welfare.