By Luke Cawdell

Gillingham chairman Paul Scally believes "radical" changes are needed at the Football Association to improve their image among the game’s inner circle.

Mr Scally, pictured, used his programme notes at the weekend to voice his displeasure at football’s governing body after the Gills were fined following an incident in the Carling Cup match at Brighton last month.

Gillingham appealed a decision to charge them with failing to ensure the players conducted themselves in an orderly fashion and/or refrained from provocative behaviour. The incident occurred after a bad challenge from Stefan Payne led to a confrontation between both sets of players.

Brighton accepted the charge and were fined £5,000. The Gills have now also been fined, with the FA hitting them with a £3,000 fine and ordering them to pay costs for the hearing, which was attended by Mr Scally.

He said: "He (referee Brendan Malone) booked two Brighton players for the manner in which they remonstrated, but didn’t see anything that resulted in a caution for any of our team, so why were we charged?

"I do believe for the FA to regain any shred of respect from those that are in fact their paymasters in football, radical change is essential, and I will be making this point strongly to the new chairman David Bernstein when we next meet."

Mr Scally’s argument was that the club’s players were trying to calm a situation down rather than inflaming it.

He said: "The FA would have nothing of it, stating it was the job of the referee to deal with (it)."

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