The House of Commons will next week debate bringing forward legislation to force the Football Association to reform its governance structures.
Last October, sports minister Tracey Crouch gave the governing body six months to take meaningful steps to revamp its board and council but patience has worn thin and the FA now risks losing £30million of grassroots money from funding agency Sport England.
The debate will take place on Thursday, February 9, the Culture, Media and Sport committee announced, with a motion of "no confidence" in the FA's ability to reform itself.
The debate has been secured by the Culture, Media and Sport select committee which published two reports under the Coalition Government calling for greater representation at the FA for fans and the grassroots game, as well as more diversity in positions of authority.
It also wanted to dilute the power of the English Football League and Premier League.
But these calls, and several more going back more than a decade, have so far been ignored.
Last autumn, the Government published new guidance on best practice for sports governance, with a clear warning public funding would be withheld from national governing bodies that fail to meet the standards or at least make significant steps in the right direction.
In a press release from the CMS committee, its chairman Damian Collins said: "The current minister for sport told the committee that the FA had been given six months from publication of the Government's guidance in October 2016 to demonstrate that it was willing to improve governance, otherwise public money would be withdrawn from the FA and distributed to football through other means.
"We do not believe the FA will comply voluntarily: it can survive easily without the Government's contribution of money to grassroots sport, and there are powerful vested interests that refuse to accept the right of all those involved in football to play a role in the governance of the sport.
"We are therefore preparing a draft bill to bring the structure of the FA, especially its board and council, more into line with modern company practice and the Government's guidelines for sports bodies."
Source: PA
