Football Association's clean-up campaign must call payday lenders to account Such unpleasantness was compounded by Jonjo Shelvey's confrontation with the United manager Sir Alex Ferguson after he was sent off. The spectacle of someone gesticulating with fury and foul language at a man who before the game had done his best to show his respect for your club and its history is hardly an example to set your fans. It is no excuse to say he is young and will learn. And there is absolutely no excuse whatsoever for the vile Twitter remarks sent to the referee Mark Halsey, which made reference to Halsey dying from cancer, a disease which has affected both him and his wife. The comments have been reported to the police. The day concluded with a less serious but still petulant spectacle in the shape of John Terry announcing his international career was over because the Football Association's decision to pursue a racism charge against him made it "untenable." He should have shut up and got on with things, not stalked off in a sulk because the Football Association is now attempting to exert its authority and pursue its campaign to wipe racism from the game. For myself, I'd like the FA to flex its muscles a bit more often. It is a body that has enormous power to influence how football is played, and the messages it emits. A few bold decisions might change the mood music. In this context, I have been following with interest a campaign being waged by Stella Creasy, Labour MP for Walthamstow, to put pressure on the FA to look at its rules concerning sponsorship from payday credit agencies such as Wonga, which sponsors Blackpool and Hearts. Wonga, in case you haven't seen the advertisements, is an entirely legal credit organisation which offers people who could not otherwise get credit, instant cash at interest rates which it admits have an APR of 4,214 per cent. If people pay back their loans swiftly, within weeks, all is well. But many are not able to do so. Creasy is concerned that the message sent out by such sponsorships of clubs in areas that are not necessarily affluent, is to encourage supporters, who are already on low incomes, to take up loans they cannot afford and plunge themselves further into debt. She finds it offensive, she says, that you can dress your toddler in a kit sponsored by Wonga: "It's the message it sends," she says. They are trying to normalise what they do. The campaign asks the FA to extend its ban on alcohol and gambling advertisements on merchandise for under-18s to include high cost credit companies, until the industry is better regulated. So far, the FA has said it is up to individual clubs to decide. But if alcohol and gambling are banned "to protect the welfare, health and general well being of young people," why not another product that if you start to believe it is a usual part of life, can lead to terrible difficulties as people take out one loan to clear another? If the FA is looking for ways to make clear its determination to make football a game of which everyone can be proud, it is a plea that deserves another hearing.