Unmasked: Firm that prepared FA chiefs for woeful showing in front of MPs concerning the Eni Aluko-Mark Sampson controversy

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The consultants who prepared FA chiefs for their desperately poor performance in front of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee can now be revealed.

It was London firm Oakhill Communications, an independent public affairs and reputation management agency, whose image will not have been helped by such a high-profile fiasco.

Oakhill were formed in November 2015 by experienced lobbyists Craig Leviton and Lee Petar. And it was the managing partners who advised the FA's Greg Clarke, Martin Glenn, Dan Ashworth and Rachel Brace before their woeful showing in front of MPs concerning the Eni Aluko-Mark Sampson controversy.

Greg Clarke speaking in front of MPs concerning the Eni Aluko-Mark Sampson controversy

The choice of Oakhill is surprising because they have little sports experience other than Leviton's previous work for FIFA's PR advisers Teneo and clients including Ladbrokes.

Oakhill are believed to have advised the FA quartet to show some contrition, which they failed to do until Clarke shouldered the blame a week later when addressing the FA Council.

After Clarke's belated mea culpa, Professional Footballers' Association chief executive Gordon Taylor said the FA should sue their advisers.

Petar said on Thursday night: 'It's not our policy to comment on client matters.'

ITV Sport have snapped up leading Sky pundit Gary Neville as an analyst for the World Cup, beating the BBC to his services. When the 42-year-old is working on England games at Russia 2018, it will be intriguing to see how much he refers to the tournament debacles in 2014 and 2016, when he had considerable influence as an assistant to manager Roy Hodgson.

ITV have snapped up Sky pundit Garry Neville as an analyst for next summer's World Cup

Difficult MCC chairman Gerald Corbett has surprisingly been recommended by the nominations panel and endorsed by the main committee to serve a second three-year term. This despite Corbett's bull-in-a-china-shop approach and the way he ignores recommendations from the powerful working party, meaning a number of MCC members, including some on the committee, wanted his head. The decision still has to be endorsed at the AGM in May.

John Rees has resigned as chairman of the British Boxing Board of Control, claiming ill-health and other work commitments mean he no longer has time for boxing business. 

His resignation follows an official complaint of misconduct from inside the sport last month. Rees has not commented on the matter and BBBC general secretary Robert Smith would not say whether the allegations about Rees's behaviour played any part in his departure.

PL's Saturday takeaway

Premier League chairmen gave unanimous backing on Thursday to the next TV tender, including an extra package of Saturday night games. This is to accommodate the number of live matches being sold over the next three-season cycle, which is up from 168 to a maximum of 210.

The PL negotiators have been mandated to sort out the final total of matches to best suit the tender, which goes out before Christmas. As well as 28 games on Saturday nights, the two Bank Holiday and midweek packages will be beefed up.

Premier League chairmen gave backing to an extra package of Saturday night matches

Only the Football League could announce they were cancelling their media Christmas drinks — plus peanuts and crisps — then a few hours later reveal they had signed a five-year extension to their Sky Bet title sponsorship from 2019-20 worth £8.5million a year. The £1.5m increase should at least pay for next year's festive bash.

Sports agency Paragon have chosen the Ashes build-up to publicise the price of booking their leading cricket clients — England's record Test runscorer Alastair Cook and cricket director Andrew Strauss — for motivation, leadership and elite performance talks. Cook costs £10,000 and Strauss £8,000.

Paragon have publicised the price of booking cricket clients Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss