Mass rejection from the general public, accusations of elitism, a blatant disconnect between themselves and their membership, you could be forgiven for thinking the Tories have gone to the toilet with their trousers on again, but alas no, it’s the FA Commission and its proposals to improve youth development of football in England.

FA chairman Greg Dyke presented these proposals of “League 3 for B teams” and “strategic loan partnerships” as the “radical” change football requires. 

A line designed to appeal to those wanting to appear progressive,  this false radicalisation of elitism is no better than David Cameron claiming “we’re all in it together” and thankfully we all know better than to believe it.

What Dyke and his fellow commissioners are presenting here is wholly designed to strengthen the elite clubs, purely because of their own continued failings. Why should the rest of football and the community suffer?

Elite clubs spend lots of money on academies and the recruitment of young players, fact. 

Many of these clubs are also owned by multi-millionaire investors with a sole focus on increasing revenue through filling trophy cabinets, competing in European competitions, charging extortionate rates for tickets and merchandise and prostituting any image or naming rights to the highest bidder. 

They have little care for developing local talent within their academies beyond Uefa legislation and if that’s how they wish to run their football club then so be it, it’s their own prerogative. 

These clubs should embrace the successes and failures equally and perhaps consider the plight of Portsmouth FC when doing so.

But what definitely shouldn’t happen is for these clubs — complaining about the lack of academy players progressing in their first teams — to be given another team in a lower league of English football to develop these players, serving to further widen the gap between those at the bottom and top of the football ladder. 

If anything the FA should be punishing these clubs for their gross negligence of England’s talent — they’ve stockpiled all the finest young talent in the country and let it depreciate and rust on an annual basis. 

It’s tantamount to western governments bailing out failing banks and giving the wealthiest individuals special dispensation for tax-dodging. It’s elitism at its finest and it’s not just crept in to our game but it’s at the very heart of its structures.

The governors and the elite like to be nostalgic about great figures within the game, the likes of Bill Shankly and Brian Clough, champions of socialism who fought against the elite, those who revolutionised clubs and brought communities together through football. 

But like Cameron and Tony Blair paying homage to Nelson Mandela, their words are vacuous, filled with hypocrisy and their actions prove it so.

Football is a social sport, a community activity and indeed at its most successful a socialist sport — it must be protected to absorb and carry the weight of all its contributors so the end outcome and impact will be so much greater than just 90 minutes of drama presented through a falsified lens. 

But Dyke and the Commission have missed this in all their fact finding, they’ve opted to support “more for the few” in favour of “a share for everyone.”

But where governments have been free to sell off public institutions and oppress the working class largely unopposed by mainstream media, the FA will find that the football community is very much united and more than willing to resist such elitist actions. 

Upon reading the FA Commission report — and many a lay-person did — resistance groups were rapidly formed (Say No To League 3, Against League 3), petitions began circulating and supporters’ groups crossed club divides to send that FA think tank of Danny Mills, Rio Ferdinand et al home to think again.

Interested in reading more? Simon Ward can be found on Twitter @thefootymonitor or read his blog — http://thefootballmonitor.wordpress.com/