WHY does it not surprise me that the Football Association’s commission to improve the England team has already descended into farce?

The protectors of the national game don’t seem to be capable of doing anything without making a few high-profile blunders along the way.

No sooner had chairman Greg Dyke announced his plans to look at ways of producing better players for the national side than the problems started.

First, the Premier League undermined the project by saying they didn’t want to be represented. Then Heather Rabbatts, the only female member of the FA board, criticised the lack of diversity by the selection of eight all-white male panelists.

That has since been addressed with the appointment of Rio Ferdinand but, even though Dyke may well have planned to include the Manchester United defender, it now looks like a token gesture.

But, more to the point, what exactly is the objective of this commission? How is its success going to be measured?

Dyke plucking random targets out of the air to win the World Cup in 2022 is both unhelpful and arrogant.

Surely, it would be better to take steps to increase the quality of English players and the percentage of them in the Premier League.

That could be achieved and the national team still not win anything because there are lots of good teams and only one can win the World Cup. Would that be considered failure?

Nobody knows, because the FA haven’t said. Which makes me wonder whether they know themselves.