Bill Bridge: Next crisis just around the corner unless some FA leadership is found

Yet the saga over Fabio Capello's future, conducted as it was with all the lack of professionalism and panache you would expect of the Football Association, might just have done the game and those who play, watch or administer it a service.

We may have to accept that those on the pitch in South Africa were not up to the task and that Capello was, indeed, given a challenge beyond reason; we do not have to accept the way the game is being run.

And this time there is a chance we might have some unlikely allies for the fact that the two-week period of reflection into England's failure in the World Cup demanded by Sir Dave Richards, the de facto head of the FA, was cut to a mere four days largely, the about turn, it seems, came at the behest of those who Richards represents on the FA, the almighty Premier League.

The perception of our elite clubs and their chief executive, Richard Scudamore, was that the Premier League was effectively picking the England manager, a task which could only bring them opprobrium should their man fail – as he inevitably would given the deep-seated problems of England football.

A series of telephone calls, a discreet shuffling of feet and a few words in the ear of selected football correspondents brought the period of reflection to an abrupt end and Capello was told, as he rested at home in Switzerland after his South African exertions, that the chalice was his for another two years, or maybe until England lose to Hungary next month and those who have spent their money on tickets turn nasty.

We can be sure of only one thing: the next crisis for English football is just round the corner and it will always be so unless the game somehow finds some leadership, preferably from people driven by the success of the England team, not the glorification of the Premier League.

For even as we applaud the stance taken by Scudamore and his chums – while not for a moment accepting that they were motivated by anything other than ensuring their "product" did not risk unpopularity – the fact remains that the Premier League plays a far too dominant role in our game.

They are responsible for the intolerably high percentage of non-English qualified players in the League; the failure of academies to produce a flow of talented footballers since their assumption of control over youth development from the English Schools FA; dithering over the completion of the Centre of Excellence at Burton-on-Trent; the rift between the Premier League and the rest of the game which has undermined the FA's authority; and the reluctance to appoint an independent FA chairman.

All these issues and more urgently need resolving if English football is to change for the better and while the debate flickers we should ignore the distractions being floated by those who do not accept their responsibility for the mess we are in.

As ever in English football, the questions outnumber the answers but at least the Premier League have ended the procrastination over Capello, pictured, not that he was ever the problem.

AN outbreak of cynicism perhaps born of the acceleration of middle age may have been to blame, but there was an unmistakeable pang of suspicion in these quarters when the British Olympic Association went public with their support for Government plans aimed at giving children across the country access to top-quality competition.

The Schools Olympics, as they will be known until some sponsor or other comes along and has their pennyworth of publicity, are to be welcomed although the many issues involved in the creation of such an undertaking must not be underestimated; anything which promotes physical activity among our youngsters has to be good.

But the involvement of the BOA? No thanks. That august body is one of many organisations within British sport which give the impression that we have more administrators than athletes.

You can imagine the gleam in the eye of those at the BOA as they ponder how many committees and steering groups could be established, how many meetings might be required and how many more jobs could be found for their sections as the dream of the Schools Olympics is realised.

Jeremy Hunt, the man in charge of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, took office with a pledge to centralise the many and varied bodies which have attached themselves to sport as the years have gone by, to reduce the number of debating societies and ensure that the bulk of such funding as is available goes to athletes rather than salaried staff.

The Schools Olympic represents the perfect vehicle for this new, slimmed-down operation to make a mark, to create a wide-ranging event which showcases our young talent but does not take away the key element of physical activity for those of tender years: that it has to be, above all else, enjoyable.

and another thing...

AS the final act of what had been built up as a major sporting drama, it was almost laughable but that is what we have come to expect from Andrew Murray.

Not that the fist-clenching, bellowing Scot who takes himself far too seriously has ever been a bundle of giggles, but the climax of his Wimbledon semi-final against Rafael Nadal did verge on the comical as Murray's simple drive surprised him and Nadal by clearing the base line and ensuring that the great crusade was over in stark, humiliating straight sets.

It was difficult not to feel a little for him as he was cloyingly asked for his reactions just a few minutes after being exposed, but it was indeed only a little and had more to do with the conviction that such intrusion so soon after a match of such importance was an infringement of private grief.

We and he will simply have to accept that Murray will not win a slam until Nadal and Roger Federer have lost interest: by then Tomas Berdych may be the man.