Burns prepares the ground for a new face of football

Starting from the standpoint that "football is generally in good health in this country", he has chosen to err on the side of generosity to existing officials and bodies in his reforms. Built into that attitude is the realisation by a skilled economist, politician and diplomat that it was necessary to produce "something that has a good chance of being accepted".

Thus the already unwieldy Council of 92 members will increase in size by up to a third, not because groups like supporters, players, managers and referees are to be represented at last, as well as half a dozen new "lay members" being appointed, but because Burns is not prepared to disenfranchise existing representatives of, for instance, Oxbridge, the armed forces and the independent schools.

Similarly, there will be no immediate reduction in the size and influence of club directors on the all-important FA Board, which will take three years to cut to the desired new level: two Premiership and one Football League representatives on a board of 12. Burns optimistically writes that "there should be no obligation on the professional leagues to draw their Board directors from their member clubs. In due course they may consider that candidates recruited from elsewhere are at least as capable of carrying out the role." Some hope.

An independent body like the pressure group Sports Nexus is therefore able to criticise the proposals as being too soft, claiming the new system is "totally ineffective and will do little more than continue the status quo". Specifically, Sports Nexus complain the proposed new Board is too large and that the Council's powers are being curtailed just as it is made more democratic.

Where the report should be wished well is in calling for greater transparency and the introduction of some genuinely independent members of both bodies, some, though not all, of whom it would like to see drawn from that well of experience and talent of former players, managers and coaches who tend to be lost to the game. "I think we all have a great affection for those who've been great footballers and would like to think they have a continuing role," Burns said after presenting his proposals.

"We have Trevor Brooking here at the FA, of course, but in football in this country it seems you either become a commentator or a manager and that's that." There is a huge job waiting for someone like Brooking as president of the FA Council and the face of the English game, a role that even Burns refers to by the populist tag "Mr Football".

"We travel in hope," was his summing up of the prospect of having the recommendations accepted, some of which will require a 75 per cent majority. "I think we'd see the FA become a much more confident, open body with a much greater sense of being the governing body of football," he said. "Whereas at the moment people are quite confused a lot of the time about what it is the FA does and doesn't do."