Not everyone was blinded by the brilliance of Lord Triesman even before his dramatic departure from the Football Association after the Mail on Sunday published what he had thought were private comments made to a close friend. She evidently took a different view of his musings on alleged skulduggery on the part of rivals for England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup, since she made a tape of them and sold it to the rabid rag. Lord Triesman sceptics remember him as a mediocre general secretary of the Labour Party. They may have forgotten that he was also an unmemorable Government minister, although it should be acknowledged that to stand out as a dunderhead at the FA, of all organisations, takes some doing. According to some estimates, a successful World Cup bid would be worth £3.5 billion to the country. If it turns out that football isn’t “coming home”, perhaps an invoice should be sent to Associated Newspapers, publisher of the MoS. Its readers are already to be deprived of Gary Lineker’s contributions. The star striker turned TV presenter said he could not continue as a columnist for a paper which had “clearly damaged” England’s bid.
PS: Lord Triesman has scored in one place at least: Tribune’s poll to find our readers’ favourite potential new leader of the Labour party. The Labour peer has scored an impressive 6% of the vote as a write-in candidate.
