Arsene Wenger is right – politicians should keep their noses out of football - Telegraph.co.uk (blog)

I have my reservations about Arsene Wenger as a football manager, but he's absolutely right when he says that politicians should keep their noses out of football. It beggars belief that the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee has threatened the Football Association, the Premier League and the Football League with intrusive legislation unless it implements a raft of politically correct reforms. Sports Minister Hugh Robertson has urged the FA Council to become more "diverse", while Committee Chairman John Whittingdale has demanded that the FA and the two league bodies become more "inclusive", "sustainable" and "driven from the grassroots".

Is this the same John Whittingdale who has been such a robust defender of press freedom against political interference in the wake of the Leveson Report? Or has he morphed into Harriet Harman? Why stop at "diverse", "inclusive" and "sustainable"? Why not insist that the FA employ an Equalities Officer who can make sure members of the FA Council regularly attend LGBT awareness workshops?

The extraordinary thing is that the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee thinks its locus extends to an association of private businessmen. Who's it going to threaten next? The board of the Groucho Club? It's not as if English football is in urgent need of a government bail-out. The Premier League has just signed a new broadcasting deal worth £5.5bn. Perhaps the Sports Minister and the Committee Chairman should reflect on the fact that English football has got along just fine without their help, thank you very much. The Premier League is currently the envy of the world.

As for the suggestion that fans – sorry, the "grassroots" – should have more control over how their clubs are run, that sounds suspiciously like Owen Jones's proposal for "genuine democratic control" of the banks. The fans have quite enough control in virtue of being able to vote with their feet or buy shares in their clubs, without Parliament legislating to secure them places on the boards. Or have Hugh Robertson and John Whittindale abandoned their belief in capitalism?

I have no problem with the British legislature becoming more powerful as long as select committees confine themselves to holding members of the executive to account. But they're over-stepping the mark when they threaten private businesses with legislative interference unless they become more "diverse", "inclusive" and "sustainable". It's precisely that sort of idiotic political meddling that has made the EU so unpopular.