The FA’s unreconstructed cartel boss

Football Association chairman Greg Clarke’s car crash meeting with a Commons select committee yesterday at least managed to offend everyone equally.  He immediately lost peer support and was forced to resign within hours.

The game can and has tolerated racism and misogyny, this was not Clarke’s first transgression, but like many other industries, football’s hand is out, looking for financial help from the government to see it through the pandemic.  On top of the many levels you should be offended by what he said, add that this was the worst representation of your employer’s interests imaginable.

Acquiring taxpayer’s money to fund an industry renowned for indulgence was always a tough pitch.  Fortunately, for those of us left on the outside of English and Welsh clubs’ partial-state cartel, instead of a smooth-talking charmer, it was being run by an unreconstructed cartel boss.  Cartels do not attract brilliant or ethical management, as they afford hiding places for all kinds of iniquities.  No one was surprised by what happened yesterday.

A cartel being able to exclude areas of the nation from the economic benefits of its industry in order to protect established companies is the reason competition laws were established.  Break it up, tell people of all colours, creeds and areas of the country, you have equal access here.