Greg Dyke fears that the “old men of English football” are “stupid enough” to fight reforms of the Football Association.
The House of Commons will this afternoon debate a no confidence motion on the FA’s ability to govern and reform itself.
Former FA chairman Dyke told the BBC: “You shouldn’t underestimate the old men of English football. They’ve seen off all sorts of people over the years.
“Government are now saying if you don’t do these things you’ll lose money and we won’t support you in the future. Who knows? They are stupid enough to say ‘we’re going to fight it anyway’.”
Damian Collins, the Culture, Media and Sport select committee chairman, said he did not believe the FA would “comply voluntarily” with sports minister Tracey Crouch’s deadline of the end of March to meet a new governance code or risk losing public funding.
Dyke, who stood down from his role at the FA last year after failing to convince the governing body’s council to reform, added: “There needs to be radical change. The Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee has produced two papers that have both pressed for change and both have been ignored by this bunch of old guys.
