MPs investigating the state of English football are to travel to Germany to look for lessons on how the game could be run better in this country.

Members of the Culture, Media and Sport select committee will visit Frankfurt and Munich in the next few weeks as part of a key fact-finding mission.

Ever since England were knocked out of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa by an exciting young German team, English football has been going through a period of introspection. That process became more intense after England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup was eliminated with only two votes in Zurich last month.

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England crash out of the 2010 World Cup following 4-1 defeat by Germany

German football has long been considered the role model for other countries to follow. Officials there make a greater investment in youth development, have strict quotas on foreign players in the Bundesliga and boast tighter club ownership rules that prevent any one "outside" investor from holding more than 49% of the shares in a club.

But the most crucial factor - the one which allows rules such as these to stick - is that the Deutscher Fussball Bund has retained control over the whole of the game in Germany - and, crucially, the Bundesliga. In England, the Football Association has lost ground and influence over the best part of the last two decades to the Premier League.