Change desperately required at the FAW

An abyss of nothingness, consumed by the the roar of endless woe.

(Owen : I've been on an enforced break due to technical issues that have - hopefully - been resolved. Nothing happened to me, and nothing died except my router. So some of the upcoming posts might be a little behind the curve, and those of you who've sent me e-mails or tweets, I haven't ignored them, I just never received them.

I was going to post something on Plaid Cymru's proposed soft drink levy. Instead of posting that now, Syniadau's pretty much covered what I was going to say myself.)

The Assembly's Communities, Equalities & Local Government Committee are currently undertaking an inquiry into sports participation.

Towards the end of September, the Football Association of Wales' (FAW) Chief Executive, Jonathan Ford (as well as the chief executive of the Welsh Football Trust and FAW research manager), gave evidence to the committee – including evidence relating investment in 3G pitches and increasing participation amongst women and minorities, two issues raised during the Assembly's last inquiry into Welsh football.

Governance at the FAW – long criticised for a whole host of reasons I'll come back to - was also raised, with Jonathan Ford submitting the FAW's recent report into governance arrangements along with his oral evidence (pdf).

The Issues at the FAW

Many FAW Council members have been very active in the Welsh
football grassroots, but are they up to the challenges facing modern football?
(Pic : McDonald's)

Plenty of anecdotal evidence of the problems at the FAW was provided by the committee's AMs.

During the evidence session, Jenny Rathbone AM (Lab, Cardiff Central) pointed out that "turkeys don't vote for Christmas", meaning that despite major issues the FAW Council are unlikely to vote themselves out of existence. She also pointed towards bullying and self-interest within the FAW in relation to Llanelli and Barry Town's exclusions from the Welsh Football League (overturned by the High Court).

Janet Finch-Saunders AM (Con, Aberconwy) highlighted significant local weaknesses in governance where 80 children in Conwy were excluded from playing football for 18 months because they weren't allowed into the local league (for some unclear reason). She had concerns about the standard of the investigation and said there were delays when it came to publishing reports.

Mike Hedges AM (Lab, Swansea East) was a bit more complimentary, saying many FAW Council members will have done a lot of grunt work at the grassroots level before making their way up the ladder. Jonathan Ford acknowledged the FAW Council members contributions - they're all volunteers - but questioned whether members were up to the challenges being placed on modern football (finances, legal requirements, professionalism etc).

Other issues highlighted in the FAW report itself include:

• 72% of FAW Council members believed that there was a need for change in governance arrangements as :
• People were elected based on seniority.
• There was a need for an age limit as elderly council members were "falling asleep at meetings".
• Parochialism, cliques, self-interest, bullying and North-South rivalries.
• Lack of key skills (i.e running a business).
• Life members retain a vote but have no mandate.
• 72% of FAW Council members also believed that decision-making powers were poor or average, with processes taking too long and the FAW Council itself and individual committees holding too much sway, with the Council retaining an ability to effectively "veto" committee decisions, using Standing Orders to derail things (sounds familiar).
• Some believed that decisions were not made in the interests of Welsh football, but based on local considerations. There's no balance between looking out for individual clubs and the needs of the Welsh game as a whole. A minority of council members placed club/league loyalties above national ones.
• There's a belief that the FAW spends too much money on administration and staff, but there was no consensus on how funds should be spent.
• There was a need for "better communication and working" between the FAW Council, FAW and Welsh Football Trust.
• Ground improvements – while FAW Council members felt it worked well – should be geared towards strategic "community hubs" (as raised in the previous Assembly inquiry) with stricter qualification criteria for funding.

The Key Recommendations

The Welsh Football Trust - which helps deliver ground
improvements - will have a closer relationship with the FAW.
(Pic : Neath Port Talbot College)

FAW Executive Committee

• Will be a new body to lead the FAW in terms of policy, strategy and finances.
• Should include "a mixture of business and football skills".
• Will be limited to 10 members, with 4 members included from the FAW Council.

The FAW Council, Committees & Boards

• Will be restructured to 35 members (including 12 club members), including representatives from both the Welsh Premier League and Welsh Women's Premier League. The current Treasurer position would be replaced by a full-time Financial Officer at Executive Committee level from 2016.
• Should introduce an age limit of 80 years old for FAW Council members, and any new members up for election should be aged under 70 in 2016 and under 65 in 2020.
• FAW Council terms will be extended from 3 years to 4 years (in line with international competition cycles).
• Life members of the FAW Council will retain membership privileges, but lose voting rights.
• A Scrutiny Committee will be established to scrutinise "the activities of all boards and committees".
• The six current Standing Committees will be replaced by 3 Game Boards (Community, National, International) each covering a coherent list of policy areas.

Welsh Football Trust, Ground Improvements & Finances

• Working relationships between the FAW & Welsh Football Trust (WFT) will become closer, stopping short of a formal merger, with FAW representation on the WFT board.
• The WFT will be re-branded the "FAW Trust" to prevent confusion over the roles of the two organisations.
• Ground improvements should be approved against strategic objectives.
• Finances should be targeted at over-16s to increase participation levels, working with Sport Wales where appropriate.

Area Associations

• Area Association governance arrangements should be "professionalised", possibly including the employment of full-time/part-time staff.
• Grants to Area Associations could be dependent on meeting strategic objectives.
• Similar age limits proposed for the FAW Council should apply to Area Associations.
• Area Associations and FAW should harmonise disciplinary procedures across Wales, review the structure of the season for young players, promote non-traditional forms of football (i.e Futsal/5-a-side) and encourage clubs to make use of local facilities, including those provided via the FAW's 3G pitch programme.

Miscellaneous

• People involved in decision-making should abstain if there's a conflict of interest.
• Improved transparency and communication, with FAW meeting minutes and voting records published promptly online.
• FAW should involve retired players in ambassadorial roles.
• Football should be used to promote health, social well being and employment.
• At least one member of the three-member Disciplinary Panel should have a legal background, with a pool of independent Disciplinary Panel members created, reviewed every 4 years.
• The use of discriminatory language by anyone attending or participating in a match will be banned and a new disciplinary offence created.

So long to the "Blazer Brigade"?

The changes outlined are comprehensive by FAW standards, but I don't think they would address issues like parochialism and self-interest by themselves.

Former Assistant Manager of the men's national side, Raymond Verheijen, has been outspokenly critical of the management of the game on and off the pitch, saying there was a "jobs for the boys culture" (or, to use the political equivalent term, a "revolving door issue").

Rule by seniority and tyranny by standing order are culturally Welsh problems, probably stemming from trade union practises. It belongs in the 20^th century, but it's something we'll just have to live with until more modern management arrangements become the norm.

If this report didn't have any references to the FAW or football, the issues raised here could easily have come out of a local authority or community group. They just as easily apply to rugby too, as I covered earlier this year, except there the national team is doing well and the clubs struggling. In football it's the other way around.

With regard the Assembly inquiry though, the question comes back to participation and the role governance plays in that.

The report said that around 9% of funding goes to the women's game (in total), a combined 25.4% to the men's national teams and a further 16.1% to the (men's) domestic game and (presumably mixed-sex) grassroots. I wouldn't expect 50:50 funding for men's and women's football - you would in an ideal world - but you would expect the ratio to be a bit closer, as women's international Jess Fishlock said recently.

As the report highlights (p68), in primary schools, between a third and a half of all football participants are girls. In secondary school it falls to around a fifth or less. That could be down to not enough women coaches or officials as much as lack of funds. That needs to start at the top with more women members on the FAW Council (there's currently one) and proposed Executive Committee.