FA gives top job to Labour peer Triesman and big boost to Burton
21/12/2007 |
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The Football Association capped a momentous week yesterday with the nomination of the Labour peer David Triesman as its first independent chairman and an agreement in principle to proceed with the National Football Centre at Burton upon Trent.
Triesman, a Tottenham Hotspur season-ticket holder and former student radical, emerged from a field that included the former Manchester United chairman Sir Roy Gardner, the former Vodafone chief executive Sir Christopher Gent and the former sports minister Richard Caborn.
The 64-year-old won the £300,000-a-year, three-day-a-week post after impressing the nominations panel with his enthusiasm for the game and a CV that includes a spell on the youth-team books at Tottenham and a long political career. He will step down from his post as a minister at the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills next month subject to his nomination being approved by the FA Council at a meeting on January 16.
"He combines excellent managerial and leadership skills with a life-long passion for the game," said Lord Mawhinney, the chairman of the nominations committee. "He has never shied away from taking strategically important decisions and has delivered strong results. I believe he will play an invaluable role in developing our game in the years ahead."
A former general secretary of the Labour party, Triesman was caught up in the scandal surrounding the secret donations made by David Abrahams. The police are investigating allegations that Labour officials broke the law by failing to disclose the true source of £650,000 of donations from Abrahams, and Triesman is expected to be asked for a witness statement as part of the inquiry.
He denies any wrongdoing and has assured the FA he had no knowledge of the donations. In a letter to Mawhinney he wrote: "The allegations are wholly untrue. At no time did I know that the donations made in proxy names by Mr Abrahams were in fact his donations or that subterfuge was being used by anyone involved to circumvent the electoral law."
Triesman has some experience of the FA, having led the Foreign Office anti- hooligan initiatives at the 2006 World Cup, and is familiar with the Premier League thanks to his current post as the minister for intellectual property, an area which sports rights holders are increasingly eager to defend. The appointment of a political figure will surprise some because the FA's original brief was to identify someone with a business background, preferably from a FTSE 250 company. This was thought to be one of the reasons Caborn was omitted from the shortlist.
Caborn said: "I welcome the appointment of Lord Triesman, someone I have known for many years, and I will work with him to bring the 2018 World Cup to England, but I was surprised not to have been given an interview by the panel."
Unlike previous chairmen Triesman will have a vote on the FA board and his appointment is intended to end the deadlock that has often hindered the FA's decision-making. One of the first issues he will have to deal with is the National Football Centre, which edged closer to becoming a reality yesterday.
The board agreed in principle to proceed with the project, subject to a detailed exploration of the business and funding plans. The board's decision does not mean the centre will definitely be built, but the Burton site is now the preferred option.
The FA favours a joint venture with the hotel chain De Vere that will see a 150-room hotel built on the site, which will be a training base for all England national and junior teams. It would also house medical, exercise, science, coaching, video analysis and education departments.
(Source: Guardian.co.uk)
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