By David Owen
July 13 – The English Football Association has announced the departure of three members of its senior management team, in a move portrayed as a re-prioritisation of “significant investment” towards grass-roots football and the England squads.
Director of football services Jonathan Hall, Wembley stadium managing director Roger Maslin and group legal director and company secretary Alistair Maclean are all taking their leave. This comes after FA chairman Greg Dyke challenged the organisation to find £30 million to fund programmes aligned to its new strategic priorities, with a significant amount to come from lowering payroll and administration costs.
In the year to end-July 2014, the FA’s average headcount rose to over 1,000, with aggregate remuneration, including social security, pension and severance costs, exceeding £52 million.
While the men’s teams have tended to disappoint at major tournaments, notably in last summer’s FIFA World Cup in Brazil, the women’s XI this month cemented a noteworthy breakthrough, defeating Germany to clinch third place in the Women’s World Cup. Sadly, they will not get the opportunity to build on this success at next year’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Martin Glenn, the FA’s chief executive, said that all venue operations were to be combined under a single director, Julie Harrington. The legal and professional game departments are similarly being combined with football governance and regulation. This will be headed by Darren Bailey.
The FA’s turnover in 2013-14 totalled £332 million. The pre-tax profit on this reached £9.8 million, with stadium and non-FA event management contributing a pre-tax loss of £13 million on turnover of £97.6 million, and the operation of St George’s Park a loss of £3.9 million on turnover of £21.1 million.
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