The FA and the need for reform

The Scottish Football Association have taken a huge step forward in becoming more in tune with the modern game, something many will argue The FA should be doing.

The chief executive, Stewart Regan, heaped praise on the organisations members after his proposed reforms gained unanimous support at Tuesday’s AGM.

Regan said: "I'm really proud, I'm proud for my staff, proud for the board and proud for the members that they have had the guts to make the change. It really is a huge day for Scottish football.”

As exciting as this is for Scottish football it is equally worrying that The FA seem reluctant to make any changes despite the increasing inadequacy of the processes involved at the top of the English game.

So united in support were the member clubs that all 93 supported each of Regan's proposals to streamline and modernise the governing body's decision-making processes during the Hampden meeting.

Rather than rest on his laurels, Regan realised on his first day in office that the processes were outdated and reform was needed.

The main changes include the reduction of the size of the SFA board from 11 to seven, including an independent member. The SFA say the board will become more strategic than representative and focus on "corporate strategy and top-line decision-making", also making sure the governing body plans for the future.

Two new boards will be created under the main board in time for the new season - one for the professional game and another for the non-professional game - with relevant representatives in each.

The much-maligned disciplinary procedures will be rewritten and a compliance officer will quickly decide whether cases will be heard by the new semi-autonomous judicial panel.

Five of the now disbanded committees - including the disciplinary and general purposes panels - were previously involved in a lengthy and often confusing structure for punishing misdemeanours, with cases sometimes taking several months to resolve.

Now a compliance officer will decide whether a case merits disciplinary action and three members of the semi-autonomous judicial panel will make "quick, up-front and transparent" rulings before the next fixture.

These are simple but effective steps that The FA could follow in order to drag the organisation into the 21st century.

Countless times last season the disciplinary process was shown to be flawed and inconsistent.

Whilst Wayne Rooney was rightly punished for his foul-mouthed comment at a television camera, Mario Balotelli and Micah Richards have, seemingly, escaped similar punishment despite being guilty of the same offence.

Under the new reforms by the SFA there will be a ban on managers attempting to influence match officials before a game, a change brought about following the referee strike in November.

The SFA have shown great humility in learning from their own mistakes and from other countries and perhaps it is time The FA followed suit.

It has become more frequent than it has widespread with the talk of match officials before a game and this needs to be stopped for the integrity of the sport.

The FA may feel that following suit would be detrimental to their pride and esteem as the home of football but the changes by the SFA have delivered a timely reminder of how important change can be.

With many still critical of The FA for not acting sooner and withdrawing from the World Cup bidding process at the first sign of corruption and the hypocrisy shown by David Bernstein, the FA chairman, for opposing the one-horse race election for the Fifa presidency; maybe its time to start regaining some faith in our game.