Graham Kelly: Incoming FA chief must deal with Eriksson dilemma

The Football Association published its advertisement for a successor to Adam Crozier as chief executive last week. Three months after Crozier resigned over the formation of the professional game board, head-hunters Russell Reynolds Associates are seeking "a team player with excellent management experience demonstrating strong commercial and financial skills and a track record of success in a diverse multi-stakeholder environment, with strong leadership and communication skills based on an open and collaborative style".

Although it is emphasised that an empathy for football both as a sport and a business will be vital, the way the advertisement is worded suggests that the position will be filled by someone from outside the game.

Therefore, there is likely to be a period of consolidation as the Premier League clubs strengthen their position, based on the gains they won when the new professional board was set up under the main FA board. After Crozier's departure, the England coach, Sven Goran Eriksson, immediately sought reassurance about the level of co-operation he could expect, though no one was likely to create further disruption at such a sensitive moment and only time was going to tell whether the clubs would play ball.

Maybe Eriksson fondly recalls his time in Italian football where disputes about the validity of international football are rare. Not only does the Italian passion for the game extend fully to the national team, but also the commercial money at the top of the game is spread among the national federation as well as Serie A.

Although the big clubs are dominant in Italy, a harmonious working practice has been found, which has so far managed to elude England, perhaps because of long-held rivalries, perhaps because of fundamental differences in the historical make-up of the English game with its two major cup competitions.

The new chief executive may find himself having to persuade Eriksson to stay, a position similar to one I found myself in with Terry Venables prior to the European Championship finals in England in 1996.

The England team's build-up, a succession of friendly matches that had shown steady if unspectacular progress, was largely overshadowed by a concentration in the written media on the coach's former business activities.

When a judge described Venables' evidence in a case as "wanton", the coach was angered by press comments made by Noel White, the chairman of the FA's international committee. He had been fighting various battles during his damaging dispute with the Tottenham chairman, Alan Sugar, and for his employers to go "wobbly" on him, as he put it, at that stage, he found particularly crushing.

As chief executive I then met Venables on six occasions for heart-to-heart meetings in an effort to resolve his worries and persuade him to accept a new contract, but, after his own family consultations, his heart was no longer in a job where clearly he wasn't implicitly trusted.

Venables may now be approaching another crossroads at the end of the season and the FA appears to be looking for someone of high calibre from the business world to succeed Crozier. The new appointee will certainly have a bulging in-tray.

However, his first concern may not strictly be even an FA matter, but it goes indubitably to the future well being of the English game. A new method of distributing Premiership overseas television income (hitherto shared out equally, but soon to be based on "worldwide appeal") and increased revenue from the online pay-per-view sector are likely to mean that Manchester United's share of media rights will appreciably rise in value over the medium term.

Based on these assumptions, and on the understanding also that United will continue to replicate their playing success of the past 10 years, the club's stockbrokers, Merrill Lynch, have produced a report so bullish that, were football really a simple game, the rest might just as well give up now, so conclusive would be the Old Trafford club's domination of the commercial scene.

Who is to say that, provided they can successfully complete their planned move to Ashburton Grove, Arsenal will not achieve similar sustained growth? And Liverpool, the traditionally stable achievers of the English game, will not capitalise fully on their recently announced long-term deal with Reebok and their planned move?

So, under its new chief executive, can the FA inject any true semblance of competition into the Premiership, while at the same time maintaining subsidies to the clubs at the lower levels of the game?

And can the new chief executive improve the accountability of the FA in the wake of the criticisms expressed by the Independent Football Commission on matters of regulation and compliance. In short, arm it with the teeth and transparency it so needs?

Moreover, will he be able to release the arm that Eriksson has firmly tied behind his back?

grahamkelly@btinternet.com