In the bewildering world that is English football David Davies, the acting chief executive of the Football Association, soon realised that the recent decision to halt the construction of the National Football Centre at Burton-on-Trent had sent out bad signals of a governing body without vision or strategy.

Davies spoke last week of his personal commitment to ensuring that the £50m project was completed as soon as possible and of England manager Sven Goran Eriksson's backing for the concept, as FA officials sat down to undertake a full-scale review of all financial obligations after the departure of former chief executive Adam Crozier.

The establishment of the new professional game board was also formally confirmed last week. I just hope that, when it is up and running, the promises which were made a few weeks ago not to disturb the distribution of the FA's net income will hold true. Also that Eriksson remains as happy over the coming weeks – and as popular – as he is professed to be today.

The former technical director Howard Wilkinson unashamedly modelled the blueprint for Burton on Clairefontaine, the French Football Federation's national centre, nestling in a beautiful forest outside Paris. When I visited, at the invitation of Gérard Houllier, then in charge, some years ago, I asked how the annual running costs were met. He looked at me as if my brain had been scrambled by his driving on the peripherique, which was not unlikely, before replying: "Simple. We play a friendly international."

Here things are viewed somewhat differently. Before the professional game board has even commenced its beady scrutiny of such matters, the phrase "meaningless friendlies" has become a self-fulfilling prophesy and two dates have been sacrificed this season at the altar of club self-interest and a cost of £5m, not including last week's beauty treatments.

Still, the FA has confirmed its ongoing support for the Football League's youth development programme costing £2.5m per annum for the next four years. The League chairmen, meeting at the bleak outpost of the windswept Kassam Stadium on the outskirts of Oxford later last week, were also cheered by the news that the two-year £25m rescue package put together by the FA and the Premier League with the government in the wake of the ITV Digital collapse had been confirmed. Confidentiality was requested, but, as is the custom, details soon began to emerge.

The bulk of the grants and soft loans (carrying a three per-cent interest rate) will go to the First Division clubs under the current distribution rules of the League, as the cash is designed to replace television money, with the remainder going to the Second and Third. Full details have yet to be worked out, but one important condition attaching to the four-year loans, the duration of the League's contract with Sky Television, will be the requirement for the recipients to remain in the Football League.

Another condition imposed on the ailing chairmen from above, ironically given that the profligacy started at the top, is control of players' pay. As in the case of the professional game board, there will be many little devils lurking in the detail of the bland phrase "progress in controlling players' pay". Another David Davies, the chief executive of Queen's Park Rangers, in charge of the League's working party on this matter, was delighted that the chairmen were prepared to give the idea conditional approval.

Clubs would be restricted to paying 60 per cent initially, 50 per cent later, of their annual turnover on players' wages. Many clubs are way above these figures now. The Ipswich Town chairman David Sheepshanks, though, feels it is illogical to institute wage-capping in the Nationwide League, when no restrictions operate on the market leaders in the Premier League. He does not see how, having finished fifth in the Premiership, his club could sensibly have planned for relegation the following year.

This leads on to the crucial issue of divisional pay, which, in the absence of parachute payments lower down the scale, becomes a high priority throughout the League. In a new standard player's contract there would be an automatic percentage pay reduction on relegation (and an increase on promotion).

Although Sheepshanks opposes the principle of controls being introduced from the "wrong" end of the market, it is in the area of sanctions that formal pay control is likely to founder. The all-powerful G14 group of European clubs have agreed similar limits among themselves, but they are only voluntary. The measures suggested by the English working party range from fines of £1 for every £1 spent over the salary cap level to relegation. By the time the chairmen do consider statutory rule changes, the trees at the National Football Centre will be fully mature.

grahamkelly@btinternet.com