THE boss of football’s new regulator must be picked carefully to stop “some nitwit” ruining the beautiful game, ministers have been warned.
Rishi Sunak today launched the Football White Paper to create a watchdog to govern the sport.
It will have backstop powers to distribute cash from the Premier League to lower clubs if football chiefs cannot thrash out their own deal.
But Jason Stein, an aide to then-PM Liz Truss who worked on the proposals, warned this could spur smaller sides to collapse talks with the hope of getting more from the regulator.
And he said it must not be led by “unhappy grandee MP or connected peer” who knows nothing about football.
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Whitehall sources reckon Gordon Brown might be lining himself up as the regulator’s chair.
Mr Stein said: “As a supporter I am deeply concerned that in half a dozen years the football industry could be run by some nitwit appointed in a back room stitch up with no accountability taking us back to the 60s.”
The Premier League also demanded that “regulation does not damage the game fans love to watch”.
Sports Minister Stuart Andrew insisted yesterday these would only have powers of last resort.
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He told MPs: “We have secured powers within the white paper for the regulator to use should there not be an agreement by the football authorities.
"We still urge them to get on with it. They still could come up with a deal and I sincerely hope that they can do that."
Ministers
The PM launched his blueprint to clean up the beautiful game and block dodgy owners — three weeks after it was leaked to The Sun.
Sides will also be banned from joining a European “super league” through the creation of a legal club-funded regulator.
Southampton fan Mr Sunak has accepted the recommendations in Tory MP Tracey Crouch’s fan-led review.
Writing together in The Sun, they rail against unscrupulous owners prepared to “recklessly gamble away the future of their clubs in the hope of big money payouts”.
A staggering 64 clubs have gone bust since it launched in 1992, with Bury the latest to plunge into administration.
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