Eriksson to face the music

2004-08-02 16:20

London - England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson flew back to London on Monday amid calls that he should follow Football Association chief executive Mark Palios and resign in the wake of a sex scandal rocking the FA.

English soccer's governing body has admitted both men had an affair with an FA secretary.

While that may not, in itself, be grounds for firing Eriksson, the Swede is to be questioned by the FA Board about how the organisation came to issue an initial statement denying it.

If he is found to have misled the FA, which was later forced to admit there had been an affair, he is expected to be fired maybe as soon as Thursday.

Palios, who had been in the job for only a year, quit on Sunday after more newspaper revelations about the scandal, which involves a 38-year-old FA secretary, Faria Alam.

David Davies, the FA's executive director who has been put temporarily in charge after Palios' departure, said on Monday that England's national federation didn't want to lose Eriksson too.

"Let's make this absolutely clear, Sven-Goran Eriksson is one of the outstanding football coaches in the world," Davies told reporters outside FA headquarters in central London.

Many people want to hire him

"That's why so many people want to hire him. That's why, when they seek his services, we have to say that. That's why we also have to say he wants to be the coach of the senior England team.

"He has a track record, a consistent record of success wherever he's worked and of course he's highly respected by the players."

Davies said that the FA staff would try and get on with their jobs as usual despite the internal turmoil. Reporters, photographers and TV camera crews camped outside the FA's central London headquarters in Soho Square and chairperson Geoff Thompson and other leading officials and board members had to fight their way in.

They declined to make any comment on the latest crisis to hit the FA.

- AP