ABSTRACT
This chapter will consider the Football Task Force as a means by which government has sought to influence the governance of the United Kingdom's most popular sport. It will outline how the Task Force came to be set up and the work which was undertaken, contrast the Task Force with other governmental interventions in professional football, and explain how the issue of the regulation of professional football became the key, and the dividing, issue for the body. The chapter will conclude with some comments about the body's likely influence on the governance of the sport. Although without legislative power, the Football Task Force was a unique initiative, aiming to combine consultation, representation and negotiation to arrive at a consensus of recommendations for the Minister of Sport on a range of issues, from racism to price control. The conflicts, contradictions and conclusions which this entailed make a fascinating study of the policy process, as well as of the divisions within football, particularly over the issue of government regulation.
