As I write, England's footballers have just skulked through Heathrow with their tails between their legs. And so they should. Their performance in South Africa was the worst by an England side at a World Cup for decades and marked the last hurrah for the "golden generation". The post-mortem is probably over by now. I hope we now know where the buck stopped. Except, in football the bucks never stop.
The more football feels like a business to fans, the less businesslike administrators behave. Even some bankers understand that rewarding failure is wrong. Despite this, thanks to the poorly timed withdrawal of a break clause in his contract, the FA will allegedly have to pay Fabio Capello £12m to sack him. While blame for failure may lie in a combination of poor performance by senior players, the Premier League's tough schedule and bad luck with injuries, ultimately the leader has to take his share. Where was praise directed when the team qualified in style? If the manager is responsible for victories, surely he is equally to blame for the flops?
Managing for excellent performance is always tough and it forms a loose theme in this issue. It's a subject our cover star Lord Coe knows a lot about. In what could be seen as a note to England's football elite—although we interviewed him before the World Cup—he says performance is "about fulfilling personal potential and about making a difference".
We also feature an interview with Liverpool Football Club's new chairman, Martin Broughton. A lifelong Chelsea fan, in some ways his appointment epitomises the topsy-turvy nature of our national game. But then a top club such as Liverpool being in such a financial and footballing mess also suggests there is a lot wrong with the sport. At least Broughton is clear about his mission to get the club sold and get out. But it's a cautionary tale of how a once great brand quickly falls if it fails to renew itself. It's a lesson for all owners of well-established brands. While you can never take the history away, such heritage is worth little when current performance is so poor.
Richard Cree