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Kite flying is not listed among the recreational interests of the former marathon running Sports Minister Richard Caborn. But this is precisely what dear old Dick appears to be doing in touting for the job of FA chairman.
“If people are up for change then I’m up for it and yes, I would stand,” says 66-year-old Caborn, who was among those deposed in the reshuffle of England’s World Cup 2018 bidding team.
Now I like Caborn, despite some of the differences we had over one or two of his policies during his record tenure as Sports Minister. He did a decent job and became one of the most effective networkers in the business during the run up to 2012. He has a gruff Yorkshire charm and made friends with quite a few sports folk - even if they were largely in football. As a former director of Sheffield United, he certainly knows the game from the perspective of the VIP box. But chairman of the FA? I think not.
For one thing, it would alienate the new Government and aggravate the present disaffection between them and the football authorities. The last thing the FA want is another ex-politician, especially a Labour one. The former incumbent, Lord Triesman was an ex-Labour minister and peer and there are certainly suspicions in Westminster circles that the government of sport has become rather uncomfortably left-leaning in recent years.
Dame Sue Campbell, chair of UK Sport, was well known as a Labour sympathiser and although she chose to sit as a cross-bencher in the House of Lords, she has been seen edging closer to the Labour benches.
I do not think that Caborn, who is also president of the ABA of England which got itself into a fine old mess during and immediately following the Beijing Olympics, has quite the necessary clout to sort out the FA or, as he puts it “Bang heads together to put England back on track.”
He is a great pal of Sir Dave Richards, another man of Sheffield who chairs the Premier League. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? It could be argued that their relationship would bring the FA and Premier League closer together. On the other hand it might appear to create be something of an comfortably cosy cartel.
The FA does not need to be playing political football as it picks up the pieces of a shattered World Cup. What is wanted is someone who is strong-willed, apolitical, and knows the game from the grass-roots upwards. I have already suggested that the ideal candidate would be Sir Trevor Brooking, a man steeped in football lore and respected throughout the game by players and officials alike. Moreover he also knows more about the inner workings of the FA than any other candidate possibly could. But I doubt the FA board have the balls to appoint him.
No doubt Caborn (pictured) is keeping a watchful eye on how the new Sports Minister Hugh Robertson is doing. They frequently crossed swords in the House when Robertson was a very effective Opposition spokesman. Caborn’s own successor, Gerry Sutcliffe, must be wondering if he will stay on as Labour’s sports spokesman in the reshuffle that will follow the election of a new leader.
It has been two months since Robertson took over as Sports and Olympics Minister and so far he hasn’t put a foot wrong – unlike his immediate boss Jeremy Hunt, who juggles his hats as Secretary of State for Culture, Media Sport and the Olympics.
All he has succeeded in doing is putting his foot in his mouth. His appalling gaffe when comparing Hillsborough with the good behaviour of English fans at the World Cup caused severe embarrassment. The lambada-dancing Hunt, a pleasant enough bloke, knows so little about sport that I fear there will be more faux pas to come.
Why David Cameron stuck with the tired old gameplan of lumping sport in with media and culture baffles me. He has missed a golden opportunity to give sport – and the Olympics – its own separate ministry, with a seat in the Cabinet which one would have thought vital as 2012 approaches. In Robertson they have someone capable of occupying that Cabinet seat. He seems to have a better grasp of sport, especially at grass roots level than most previous Sports Ministers with the notable exception of Denis Howell, Kate Hoey and possibly Colin Moynihan.
So far there has been little Opposition reaction to the new Con-Lib sports agenda, including the scrapping of Caborn’s baby, the UK School Games in favour of a “Schools Olympics” (though they must find a new title for them to avoid upsetting the IOC). So it is with the slashing of the sports budget.
Recently I took my two young grandchildren swimming, expecting the customary free admission for under-16s and “senior citizens” at the local pool in Surrey. “Sorry,” I was told. “You’ll have to pay up like everyone else.”
It transpired they were making early implementation of the new Government’s decision to scrap the scheme launched with such a fanfare by former Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell exactly two years ago. Now it has been ditched as part of the £73million worth of cuts, and I suspect it is one which has given Robertson sleepless nights. He admits the decision “gives me no pleasure” but agrees it is a necessary contribution to the overall economies - though the actual saving, some £5 million, seems a drop in an Olympic-sized pool.
The initiative, which the Government claims has not delivered value for money, was one of Labour’s key Olympic legacies yet curiously there has not been a peep of protest from Ms Jowell. Is this because she has growing hopes of a role with 2012 – which Robertson and Seb Coe are currently discussing- and doesn’t wish to rock the boat politically? Funny old game, sports politics.
Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered 11 summer Olympics.