Former Football Association (FA) chair Lord Triesman has claimed the national governing body "backed out from regulating" the domestic sport.

The comments were made as part of the first evidence session for a culture, media and sport committee inquiry into the governance of football. Lord Triesman claimed that, apart from the issue of on-field discipline, the FA no longer ran the game and had become sidelined by the Premier League.

He also suggested that England would not have bid to host the 2018 World Cup had it been known that FIFA was looking to take the event to 'new territories'. Meanwhile, the European Club Association (ECA) has reacted to the possibility of a winter World Cup in 2022 by demanding greater transparency from FIFA.

At its sixth General Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, the ECA said that decisions to change the international calendar must involve the relevant stakeholders. In a statement, the ECA said: "ECA primarily questions the way FIFA reaches decisions heavily affecting club football without the involvement of the stakeholders concerned and believes that modern football needs democracy, transparency and certainty of rules."