FA set to regulate rogue directors

The Football Association yesterday revealed it is considering instituting a "fit and proper person test" for club directors and owners. The news ought to send shock waves through boardrooms and lead to shredding machines working overtime, but the proposal is unlikely to concern the asset-strippers and other dubious figures who exploit the game.

The suggestion, floated by the FA's acting chief executives, David Davies and Nic Coward, yesterday, is long overdue but it will be difficult for a governing body, shackled as it is by the clubs, to enforce.

"We have been looking at the idea of a 'fit and proper person test' in relation to directors and [significant] shareholders for a while and need to come to some conclusions," Coward said. "There are a lot of people around football who do think this is a good thing." The proposal is to be considered by the FA's newly created Financial Advisory Committee, headed by Sir Roland Smith, a former chairman of Manchester United plc and a non-executive director of BSkyB.

Among the issues to be determined is whether the test can be applied to current as well as prospective directors. It is, though, a difficult test to frame. Nor would it be conclusive. It is unlikely that George Reynolds, the reformed safe-cracker who is now chairman of Darlington, would pass the test but, while controversial, most would argue that he has benefited his club.

Other lower-division chairmen, however, have left clubs in serious peril. Avoiding a repeat of such situations will come into the FAC's remit. Coward added: "These are community clubs, there for the community, and how we can keep them as such is one of those things we are going to address."

Davies added: "This is a constant battle to do things which would make a difference, but you have to do those within the law." Well-meaning though this initiative is, the feeling remains that only a Government-backed independent regulator can really make a difference.

The FA has admitted that an un-named Nationwide League player has tested positive for the banned anabolic steroid, nandrolone. He was suspended and warned that a second offence could lead to a permanent ban. Two other English-based players have tested positive for marijuana and are under investigation by the FA. A player in Scotland has also tested positive for marijuana and has been suspended for three months.