Why the Prince needs to blow the whistle on the FA

Mickey Ambrose starts the new year with an appeal to our future king

In 2024 it will be eight years since the new Prince of Wales and heir to the throne spoke at a lunch in Wembley to mark his 10th anniversary as President of the Football Association. 

Prince William said: “Our governance structure is in danger of falling short of modern standards of best practice; as the country’s national sport, we ought to be leading the way.”

Prince William appeared to publicly back outgoing chair Greg Dyke’s efforts to reform the FA Council, by making it more representative and diverse. He continued: “There is a wind of change blowing through global sporting governance and we need to ensure we do not get left behind. I know the organisation is currently reviewing this issue and there is an opportunity to seize the initiative by the way in which we reform ourselves. This is an emotive issue, and it is one that you all have a stake in deciding.” 

Many of the guests that day were FA board members, very little has changed, apart from the FA becoming masters of tokenism. 

After years of delay and foot-dragging the FA announced just this week that a woman, Rebecca Welch, would referee a men’s Premier League match for the very first time and Sam Allison would become the first Black official since Uriah Rennie retired in 2008, some 15 years ago. However, there is no remorse or regret, such is the arrogance of the Football Association. 

We are living through an era of wondrous catch-phrases, cloaked in the mysticism of being woke and PC, with very little substance. We constantly hear expressions such as Social Justice or the acronym EDI, (Equality, Diversity, Inclusion). 

Everything goes back to the idea that we live in a world where we are all equal and have equality of opportunity. Of course, no-one is calling for an equality of outcome, this would be absurd and would engender anger and resentment. People need to be awarded jobs based on their talents, not their ethnicity and gender alone. 

For many years the People’s FA campaign group, co-founded by myself and Nigel Fletcher, has asked the Football Association for a whole raft of statistical data, to look at how football can be made more diverse, especially off the pitch, where we still have staggering under-representation of our black and ethnic minority community, regardless of the fact that 48 per cent of players on the pitch are non-white British. 

Yet, the response we get is always the same: “We do not have this information, nor do we have the methodology in place to collect statistics of this nature.” 

I have had the privilege of being an Ambassador/Presenter to the Royal Charities for many years and experienced first hand the remarkable work of the Princes Trust and the Duke of Edinburgh Awards. I cannot think of an institution in Britain which has done more to combat racism and engender a true and meaningful multicultural society, than the Royal Family. 

I am therefore openly calling on HRH Prince William, the President of the Football Association, to set an 18-month deadline for the FA to undertake meaningful change across four metrics, which are all achievable. 

1. The Football Association must ensure they are held accountable for their decision-making processes, in a clear and transparent manner and abide by freedom of information laws; 

2. The FA must establish a dedicated research team, that will work alongside the FA Council, to facilitate the collection of data, especially in an effort to improve diversity and multicultural integration; 

3. The FA will lead a fast-track programme, for BME youth team players, who do not make the grade as players at Premier League Clubs, to become referees, and to work towards a more diverse match official representation; 

4. The Premier League and Football Association need to establish programmes within each club, that will allow for a more diverse backroom and administration structure at each club, and that will pave the way for people of colour to be represented across all boardrooms at senior directorship level. 

If the FA fails to attain satisfactory outcomes in these four key areas, then our heir to throne needs to reconsider his position as President of the Football Association, as it will affect his standing as our future monarch. 

The battle for equality is something that will never end; all of us from all communities need to come together to support each other and our shared values. 

All that remains is for me to wish my regular readers a peaceful new year and may 2024 bring you all happiness and good health. 

Mickey Ambrose is a former Chelsea and Charlton player who lives in Stratford

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