By Tom Fordyce

Why should you care that Michele Verroken, head of anti-doping at UK Sport, is the latest high-profile name at the organisation to be forced out?

Because the shake-up that saw Verroken ditched is part of a radical rethinking of the way British sport is organised - and to those responsible, the entire future of sport in this country is at stake.

Sports minister Richard Caborn is convinced that the potential international success of British teams and sportsmen is being damaged by the way sport is run.

There are over 500 different organisations in charge - 13 in golf alone - and to critics of the present system, that means wasted money and wasted talent.

Sue Campbell: The most powerful woman in British sport?

When David Moffett resigned as chief executive of Sport England a year ago, he warned that bureaucracy and arrogance within governing bodies were standing in the way of sporting achievement.

"Many sports are still run in an amateurish way and there is a huge need for modernisation," he said. "Unless this happens, this country will never have any meaningful success."

Caborn's emissary in his chosen battle is Sue Campbell, the former netball international who was selected as interim chairwoman of UK Sport with the specific task of re-examining the status quo.

UK Sport is the government-funded body that looks after elite sport, dope testing and the staging of big sporting events in Britain.

Campbell has only been in charge for four months, but she has already made her mark - first in easing out former chief executive Richard Callicott, and now with the departure of Verroken.

She replaced Callicott with Liz Nicholl - former chief executive of the All England Netball Association and a proven moderniser - without consulting UK Sport's 14-strong board, and it is this sort of fearless approach that recommended her to the role in the first place.

Caborn is believed to have wanted someone from outside the current sport establishment, reasoning that those who have consistently failed to modernise over the years do not have the objectivity or ability to do the job themselves.

Funding slashed

Sports receive much of their funding from the National Lottery, but with ticket sales in steep decline there is a smaller and smaller pile of cash to go round.

That means that each pound must be made to work harder - and that governing bodies are under severe pressure to produce tangible results for the money they spend.

Sport England, the body that distributes lottery funding to sport in England, has seen its lottery revenue fall from �270m in 1997 to just �160m today.

That has led to the organisation both cutting back on its own administrative costs and targeting its dwindling pool of money at sports that can actually produce success.

Ten priority sports will now receive 80% of its budget, rather than the money being spread across nearly 60 governing bodies.

Thinking the unthinkable

Campbell was made chair of UK Sport with the intention of giving her 18 months in charge, leaving her the freedom to ask previously unanswerable questions with relative impunity.

She may even consider scrapping UK Sport entirely if her review concludes that its job could be done more cheaply and effectively by other existing bodies.

More likely is an overhaul of UK Sport's role in overseeing all drugs tests in Britain.

Campbell may recommend the setting up of an independent anti-drugs body along the lines of the United States Anti-Doping Agency.

And one possible result of the current Rio Ferdinand disciplinary hearing is that the Football Association will decide to get its drug testing done by a private company, much as the Jockey Club now does.

What is clear from events of the last few days is that Campbell, with the full support of the government, is determined that changes will be made - even if it entails treading on some very important toes.

If nothing is done, believe the modernisers, Britain's sporting future - already under threat - will become even bleaker.