Sven saga creates more problems for FA
The Football Association was thrown into further turmoil in the Sven-Goran Eriksson saga after reports they tried to do a deal with a newspaper to protect chief executive Mark Palios at the expense of the England coach.
Telephone calls by director of communications Colin Gibson to the News of the World, recorded by the paper and published today, suggest the senior FA official offered to provide details of Eriksson’s relationship with FA secretary Faria Alam in return for secrecy on Palios’ affair with the same woman.
Gibson appeared to confirm his conversations with the newspaper with a statement he issued this morning in which he claimed he had been frank in providing information to his employers in their investigation.
“Last week I complied with the FA enquiry, gave them complete details of the events of July 24, including transcripts of telephone calls, my minute-to-minute movements and supplied them with a complete list of all my telephone calls,” he said.
“The FA knew about the details last week and the story about brokering a deal.”
Eriksson’s fate is due to be decided at a special meeting of the 12-man FA board next Thursday, the next crucial stage in a self-inflicted saga which now seems certain to end with either the 56-year-old Swede losing his job or at least one senior figure within the governing body being forced to resign.
Officials from Soho Square still seem hell-bent on dismissing Eriksson for gross misconduct if it is proven that he misled his employers over his relationship with Alam, precipitating the PR shambles that followed.
