YESTERDAY I was due to attend a meeting for Conference chairmen in London where we met representatives from the Ministry of Sport and were to be joined by MPs who have a Conference club in their constituency.

The Conference bosses plan to introduce two further regionalised Conference Divisions and the meeting should have given them a chance to air the proposals.

The vast majority of the clubs which it concerns, have voted positively for the reorganisation. There has been some opposition to the idea and the FA are not keen to see the implementation of the move.

Discussions were to take place on the issue of representative matches. The FA have chosen a National Game squad to play in Holland next week, leading to a strong opposition from Conference clubs. There has been a stance that players should not be released for internationals, something we have gone along with in the past.

However, having had Michael Rose selected and Matthew Baker on standby, I would now be very reluctant to deny them the honour of international recognition. If the vote goes in favour of a continued ban then we have no option but to tow the party line.

Several seasons ago the FA set up a financial advisory unit, a group of accountants who descend on clubs to inspect all aspects of financial affairs. In our case, as I would suspect in the vast majority of cases, the conclusions were that we were spending more than we earned. Very little advice was offered to us apart from the need to cut back on expenditure, especially the playing squad budget.

This season, we have budgeted for home gates of 2,200 and, perhaps, on evidence of previous seasons we were better off budgeting for gates of 1,800 to 1,900.

But if you budget for that figure, you are more likely to put together a team that will finish only halfway.

And, because you finish in that position, you are likely to get lower gates than budgeted for. So, putting a squad budget together is not a precise science.

Perhaps it's ironic then when it appears the FA, themselves, are in financial hardship and some of the big noises in the FA run clubs who are also in the same situation.

Whilst there is uncertainty about the National Training Centre project, the biggest fiasco is the National Stadium. In my opinion, Wembley lost its appeal to the vast majority of supporters when the twin towers were removed.

It's also a very difficult place to get to. The obvious choice was to take it to the Midlands which offers far better accessibility and a far cheaper option.

l GRAHAM TURNER was talking to Hereford Times sports reporter IAN MORGAN