Stretford Case Dangerous for the Fa

Wayne Rooney’s agent Paul Stretford takes the Football Association to the high court in London today at the start of what could be a landmark case for the game. Stretford is contesting the FA’s right to discipline him for alleged breaches of regulations arising from his signing of Rooney as a client, and wants the case to be heard in open court.

Stretford was charged last June after a blackmail trial arising from the battle to represent Rooney between Stretford and the player’s previous agent. The case collapsed when evidence from Stretford, the chief prosecution witness, was ruled unreliable, and the FA followed up with charges.

Stretford retaliated with a counter claim in the courts, alleging that the FA’s procedures breach his human rights under European law as the governing body will be acting as prosecutor, judge and jury. Stretford wants a "truly independent" panel to hear his case, but the FA will today apply for the case to be thrown out and for it to be heard behind closed doors by a disciplinary tribunal.

Should the FA lose it could throw the entire disciplinary system into doubt as the primacy of the sporting rule book over the civil courts would be undermined. It would also threaten the privacy of disciplinary hearings, something the FA is loath to give up despite Lord Burns suggesting it should be done in his structural review.

Fitness check

Portsmouth’s joint owner Alexander Gaydamak, below, has officially registered as a director of the struggling club and under Premier League rules he is now required to pass a fit and proper persons test. The process amounts to little more than signing a form to declare that he is indeed a fit and proper person to serve on a club board.

Barwick’s trouble

The FA’s chief executive Brian Barwick returned from a week’s holiday yesterday to a typically overflowing in-tray, with today’s official announcement that the FA Cup final will be played in Cardiff again this season near the top of the pile. An even bigger decision over the identity of the next England manager is also pending and Barwick’s holiday destination will have helped focus his mind on the job requirements. He rested up in Dubai, the scene of the fake sheikh sting that cost Sven-Goran Eriksson his job.

Beeb seal India radio deal

While Sky and other potential TV broadcasters thrash out a rights deal for the India-England series that starts in eight days’ time the BBC has secured radio rights for all Indian international cricket in the first deal of its kind with an overseas governing body, covering Tests and one-day matches for the next four years.