Davies gives his backing to Eriksson

SOCCER: The chairman of the All-Party Football Group last night warned that the professional game's influence over the English Football Association should not increase as a result of Soho Square's disastrous handling of Faria Alam's affairs with Sven-Goran Eriksson and Mark Palios.

British MP Alan Keen issued his warning as it became clear that the FA chairman Geoff Thompson is under increasing pressure to follow the chief-executive Mark Palios and resign from the organisation he has chaired for the past four years.

Thompson has lost the support of several key members of the FA board and yesterday came under pressure to consider his position as the implications of Palios's hasty resignation began to sink in at Soho Square.

If he were to stand down before the emergency board meeting he has called for Thursday then David Dein, a vice-chairman of the FA, Arsenal and a member of the Premier League board, could step into Thompson's role.

The professional game represents half of the voting members of the 12-man board, and Keen, whose group published its report into the governance of football earlier this year, said the FA should resist ceding further power to the professional game.

"The professional game should have a role in the Football Association, but it should not end up with more power as a result of the appalling events of the last few weeks," said Keen.

Keen was speaking as Thompson, senior FA executives and other board members returned to Soho Square for a round of emergency talks intended to map out the organisation's immediate strategy.

Acting chief-executive David Davies was first to arrive at Soho Square, followed shortly afterwards by Thompson and board member David Richards, the chairman of the Premier League. Dein and director of football development Trevor Brooking also attended the series of meetings called to deal with issues arising from Palios's departure.

Eriksson, who flew back from Amsterdam yesterday, is expected at Soho Square this morning for talks about his future. In a sign that his position remained safe Davies offered a ringing endorsement of the Swede as he arrived to begin his third-term as acting chief-executive, describing Eriksson as "one of the outstanding coaches in the world".

Yesterday however, the immediate future of the chairman who launched an inquiry into the Swede's conduct while prematurely clearing Palios was occupying many senior FA officials. One source indicated the coach's position was now more secure than the chairman's.

"It's hard to see how Thompson can survive after this," said one source. "The way this has panned out means he may have to go too. Sunday's revelations change everything, and it's now clear there was an agenda at work to get rid of Sven. Given that, we would need to have an absolutely watertight case to sack him."

Thompson has clearly been deeply compromised by the weekend's developments. Sources close to the board made it clear yesterday that his decision to clear Palios of wrongdoing five days before he accepted his resignation had, in the view of a majority of board members, made his position untenable.

The mishandling of the Alam affair has caused anger among board members, not least because the FA has been revealed as deceitful, and there is a groundswell of opinion gathering behind those who believe Thompson must go. At Thursday's meeting the chairman could find himself reporting to a board, the majority of whom have lost faith in his leadership.

Thompson was implicated in the departure of Palios's predecessor Adam Crozier over the establishment of a professional game board, but he survived accusations that he was the Premier League's "hatchet man" then and is not without support on the FA council.

His future appears less secure this time. At Thursday's meeting Thompson is due to present the findings of an "independent" inquiry into the circumstances that led the FA to release a misleading statement about Eriksson's relationship with Alam, but that report is clearly compromised.

It will focus on the conversations between Davies and Eriksson and the contact with the communications department, but will not examine the roles of Palios or the chairman.

Last night a statement on the weekend's developments, promised since Sunday evening, had still not been agreed. It was expected to clarify Colin Gibson's status. Gibson offered his resignation on Sunday evening after he was revealed to have briefed against Eriksson in order to prevent details of Palios's affair with Alam being published, but in a sign of the chaos gripping the organisation, it had still not been either accepted or rejected.

Guardian Service