FA CHIEFS BRACED FOR MORE PRESSURE
TOMORROW’S FA council meeting is the next hurdle for the beleaguered FA high command following the fallout from the Mark Sampson controversy. The councillors are yet to have their say on the FA’s inept handling of the affair, as laid bare at last week’s DCMS select committee. FA chairman Greg Clarke has written to the blazers about a ‘very difficult week’, admitting: ‘Our organisation has fallen short of the standards that people should rightly expect of us.’ Clarke added that he will be ‘happy to take any of your questions on this issue when we meet’. A hostile reaction for Clarke and FA chief executive Martin Glenn will really ramp up the pressure on the leadership duo, with former independent director Heather Rabbatts
already claiming FA technical director Dan Ashworth’s position is untenable.
And with Sportsmail having revealed the extent of the PFA’s anger at the version of events Clarke gave to MPs, tomorrow’s summit is the perfect opportunity for FA councillor and PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor to question the FA chairman directly.
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clients of former FIFA media chief Walter de Gregorio’s new consultancy include agent Jorge Mendes. So when De Gregorio was a guest in Harry Kane’s Wembley box for Tottenham’s victory over Liverpool last Sunday, the conspiracy theorists soon had Mendes masterminding a Kane transfer. But it turns out that De Gregorio had been invited to the match by Kane’s existing agents CAA. GETTING all 11 members of FIFA’s Best global team for 2017 on the same London stage was a remarkable coup. But whether the many millions Zurich threw at the second edition of their Best awards was worth it when such ceremonies are ten-a-penny is debatable. The success of the night at least means the 2018 version will stay in London.
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most surprising seating plan choice for the FIFA Best Awards was to place Lord LloydWebber (right) in the balcony when all the great and the good were in the stalls of the London Palladium — especially as the impresario, when asked why he was sitting so far away from the stage, replied: ‘I own the building.’ To make matters worse, Palladium staff tried to stop Baroness Lloyd-Webber from filming some of the ceremony. RuGBy’s Premiership and the six Nations have faced chronic difficulties maintaining and attracting sponsorships. yet the super confident RFu have a new five-year strategic plan that shows them completing partner renewals up to 2024 in 2020. The RFu say they have the advantage of offering grass-roots opportunities within the deals. THE Professional Game Board are interviewing to find a female to join the FA board representing both the Premier League and Football League — and who is not affiliated to one of their clubs. But far more crucial at the moment is for a black representative to join the white-only board. Paul Elliott, already chairman of the FA’s inclusion advisory board, is the obvious choice.