Caborn: FA Should Franchise Out Wembley

Former UK sports minister Richard Caborn has suggested that the Football Association should consider a restructure and even ‘franchise out’ the running of the FA Cup and Wembley.

In a scathing attack against the FA Caborn said: ‘Should a governing body be running that (the FA Cup and Wembley) as well as governing the sport? The FA needs to say we have to look at ourselves very seriously and we need to modernise ourselves.’

Caborn also branded The Football Association as ‘not fit for purpose’ after the poor performance of the England team in South Africa.

The FA has also lost a succession of chief executives and chairmen in recent years – most recently Lord Triesman after a newspaper sting.

Caborn, who was sports minister for six years, said: ‘Is the FA fit for purpose? No I don’t think it is, I believe the governance of the game is not prepared to stand up to its responsibilities.’

Caborn suggested that England follows Germany’s football model after there was a repositioning of the governance in 2000.

‘I think that has been to the benefit of German football, and we are seeing some of those results at the current World Cup,’ he said.