IF YOU don't mind me asking, how do you feel about the Government and the way they run the country?

Income tax rate suit you? VAT at 20 per cent, you OK with that? Bailing out the banks? Student loans, immigration, overseas aid, NHS dentists – no problems there?

In that case, maybe you and I have been reading different newspapers, listening to different phone-ins, drinking in different pubs. But what do we know?

The people we send to Westminster must be happy because every time they spot a new challenge they swoop on it like a piece of loose litter and set about tidying it up. And now they've discovered football.

When Margaret Thatcher appointed Colin (now Lord) Moynihan as Minister for Sport in 1987, he asked her what she wanted from him. Her answer, he told me, was simple: "Keep a high profile."

It appears the policy endures. Hugh Robertson, whose Faversham and Mid Kent constituency is just down the road from Gillingham's Priestfield Stadium (he supports Chelsea), was named Minister for Sport and the Olympics in 2010.

Last October he felt confident enough to shake a stick at the Football Association.

The FA has been given until February 29 to overhaul its board and bring in a new licensing system for clubs.

The game's governance, Robertson said, "has failed to keep up with the modern game. If football proves unable to sort this out itself, then the government may have to legislate."

The Nanny State saying, "If you don't behave I may have to smack you."

We need to be clear what the charge is. That goes back to a Select Committee which looked at the finances of the professional game and didn't like what it saw.

The Government then said it "shares the concern expressed by the Committee at the extent of losses and the number of clubs on the edge of viability".

No surprise there. According to the respected Deloitte report for the 2009-10 season, the 92 league clubs lost £600m in total. Their collective debt as of June 2011 stood at £3.5bn or, to put it brutally, £3,500,000,000.

But hold on a minute. Last June, Port Vale, Crewe and the remaining 70 clubs outside the Premier League agreed to adopt UEFA break-even regulations.

In simple terms, from season 2013-14 expenditure must not exceed revenue. Problem solved? Let's hope so.

Meanwhile, what about the real big spenders? UEFA Financial Fair Play measures are, unsurprisingly, far from simple, but they will affect any club playing in Europe or with ambitions to do so.

Fail to deliver and the punishment would mean exclusion from the Champions League and the Europa League. Problem solved? We'll see.

These are the clubs with the most complex balance sheets. Clubs who can afford the most expensive lawyers and the most creative accountants. Check the debit column in next year's figures for expenditure on midnight oil.

Prudent clubs such as Stoke City will have less to worry about than some.

Anyway, if this is evidence that football is already under pressure to put its house in order, why is the Government saying sort it by the end of February or else?

Surely not because it is using stark financial issues as a pretext for grinding some different axes? This week racism was added to the list.

Among "immediate priorities" is a demand for significant changes to the FA Council, the body that runs all our football, but doesn't oversee club balance sheets.

Those changes would involve a reduction in length of tenure, the introduction of more women, more councillors from ethnic minorities, more ex-footballers, more representatives of supporter groups. Not necessarily bad ideas.

Perhaps FA councillors should have a retiring age, though the suggestion is a bit rich from a legislature where promotion from the Commons to the Lords is frequent, but there is no relegation.

What is worrying about the ultimatum is its preoccupation only with football as reflected in the media.

The Government is shocked by transfer fees and players' salaries (that they contribute greatly to public fascination with the game is an argument for another day).

It worries about the danger of clubs finding the piggy bank empty, but it doesn't indicate why they should be spared the fate of other businesses – banks excepted – that cannot pay their way.

So much for football as Westminster sees it. Nowhere is there a word to suggest concern for the grass roots of the game, yet that is where football's heart beats.

Every month nearly seven million people, including 3.9 million children, play some form of the game.

More than a million women and girls now play the game.

All out there getting healthy exercise instead of growing obese on junk foods.

The lucky ones will belong to well structured clubs with good facilities. Many more will try to develop their skills in public spaces where grass is seldom cut and lines rarely marked.

The lucky ones will have changing rooms, some even with showers. Many more will arrive in their kit and, on a bad day, go home soaked to the skin.

Now that's a challenge that would be worth tidying up.