KEIR RADNEDGE in LONDON: FA chairman Greg Dyke has set up the ‘four pillars of wisdom’ by which football’s directors should be judged.

Inevitably Dyke, opening the Leaders in Football conference at Chelsea, was laying out standards by which he may be judged when his term ends in three years’ time.

Dyke, former Manchester United director and BBC director-general, told an audience of officials, sponsors and media of his tenets, comprising:

1, seeking to maintain universality of the game on the pitch;

2, guarding against the blurring of national identities because “international competition is the bedrock of sports and is one football’s greatest assets . . . a wonderful way of bringing nations together and, at domestic level, important for clubs to be global in outlook and outreach but grounded in their local community;

3, taking a pride in the game’s redistributable process of monies to grassroots development even thought such projects – such as reaching out to 180,000 primary schools – was considerable; and

4, valuing and being supportive of people within the game.

The FA is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year and Dyke added: “In the spirit of those founding fathers it’s important for us to come together once in a while to ask ourselves this one simple question: How do we want to leave the game.”

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