Horne: Triesman made a mistake

Fabio Capello (left) and Lord Triesman
12 April 2012

Football Association general secretary Alex Horne has admitted former chairman Lord Triesman "made a mistake" in failing to discuss changes to Fabio Capello's contract as England manager with the organisation's whole board.

The FA controversially removed an exit clause in Capello's four-year deal shortly before last year's World Cup, a decision Horne admitted should have been referred to the board. Instead, it was taken by a handful of executives, including Triesman, who was forced to resign as independent chairman following an unrelated tabloid sting before the amended contract was actually signed.

Horne, who was acting chief executive at the time, told a Department of Culture Media and Sport committee inquiry into football governance: "I'll hold my hands up on behalf of David Triesman and say, in hindsight, it was a whole board decision and should have gone to the whole board. It did not go to the whole board."

After the hearing, Horne added: "He made a mistake."

Horne refused to identify the other executives involved in the decision but admitted at least some of them were still at the FA.

"I'm not comfortable sitting here naming four or five people," he said. "The decision has been reviewed internally and we hold our hands up to a corporate governance mistake.

"David (Lord Triesman) was the senior member involved as chairman of the association and clearly felt he had the authority to make that commitment.

"It was only after he left that the board questioned the decision."

The move had been taken to ward off interest from top Italian clubs at a time when Capello was still basking in the glory of a virtually impeccable qualifying campaign, with hopes high of a tilt at the ultimate prize in South Africa.

Unfortunately for England, it did not turn out that way and the FA spent almost a week deliberating Capello's future following a calamitous 4-1 defeat to Germany in Bloemfontein. Eventually they chose to retain Capello's services amid suggestions their task had been made harder by the removal of that break clause in his £6million-a-year contract.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in