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England's campaign to host the 2018 World Cup was in chaos last night after the Football Association’s chairman accused Spain and Russia of planning to bribe referees in this summer’s tournament.
Lord Triesman, the former Government Minister who was given the job of trying to rebuild the FA’s scandal-hit reputation, made the extraordinary claim during an hour-long meeting with a former aide.
He divulged highly sensitive information about England’s 2018 bid – which he is leading – and, in what will be viewed as a disastrous lapse of judgment, accused rival nations of corruption.
The 66-year-old Labour peer suggested that Spain may withdraw its bid to stage the 2018 finals if Russia, which also wants to host the event, helps it to bribe referees in next month’s World Cup tournament in South Africa.
The revelations come just two days after Lord Triesman and David Beckham formally presented England’s 1,752-page ‘bid book’ to Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA, football’s world governing body.
The FA last night made a desperate attempt to secure a High Court injunction to prevent The Mail on Sunday publishing this story. But they abandoned the case after 90 minutes.
Lord Triesman made the corruption claims to Melissa Jacobs, a civil servant he employed as a private secretary when he was a Minister at the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.
Miss Jacobs tells today how she went on a series of dinner dates with the peer shortly after he joined the FA in January 2008. She says their relationship became intimate, but she ended it after growing increasingly ‘uncomfortable’ about dating a married man. She later expressed her concerns on an internet blog in which she refers to the peer as Mr T.
Lord Triesman sent her countless affectionate texts. He described in one how he craved her company and said in another: ‘I need you’. He ended one message with ‘BKsAO’ – which 37-year-old Miss Jacobs said stood for ‘big kisses all over’.
After the relationship ended, they remained friends, and during their meeting at a restaurant in London two weeks ago, he appeared comfortable candidly discussing delicate subjects.
Lord Triesman, who sat alongside Prince William at the FA Cup final at Wembley yesterday, recounted how he clashed with Premier League bosses over foreign ownership of football clubs and accused them of ‘briefing against’ the FA.
He also talked about the John Terry scandal, when the Chelsea defender was stripped of the England captaincy after his affair with team-mate Wayne Bridge’s former partner, Vanessa Perroncel.
‘I thought it was bad behaviour and very disruptive to the team,’ he said. ‘The rest of the players pretty much felt that.’
Affair: Melissa Jacobs says she had an intimate relationship with Lord Triesman in 2008
In his conversation, which was tape-recorded, he told Miss Jacobs that when England manager Fabio Capello summoned Terry for a dressing-down the player asked: ‘Can I see you at home or at Stamford Bridge?’, and Fabio replied: ‘You’ll be at Wembley at 10.’
Lord Triesman said: ‘I didn’t ask [Capello] what he thought but I knew exactly what he would do...and he didn’t have to ask me what I thought.’
Suggesting Terry was in denial over the scandal, he added: ‘He doesn’t believe he did anything wrong at all. Doesn’t see it. His Mum and Dad tell him he didn’t do anything wrong...all his mates in Dagenham tell him [affecting a mock London accent], “You never done nothing wrong”.’
But most embarrassing – and damaging – of all Lord Triesman’s indiscreet remarks is his claim early on in the conversation that: ‘There’s some evidence that the Spanish football authorities are trying to identify the referees...and pay
them.’
Later, while discussing where England might find support for its bid for the 2018 competition, against the eight other nations hoping to host it, he repeated the bizarre claims.
‘I think the Africans we are doing very well with. I think we’re doing kind of well with some of the Asians. Probably doing well with Central and North America,’ he said.
‘My assumption is that the Latin Americans, although they’ve not said so, will vote for Spain. And if Spain drop out, because Spain are looking for help from the Russians to help bribe the referees in the World Cup, their votes may then switch to Russia.’
At this point, Miss Jacobs asks: ‘Would Russia help them with that?’
Lord Triesman: ‘Oh, I think Russia will cut deals.’
Miss Jacobs: ‘Why will Russia help? Are Russia in the World Cup?’
Lord Triesman: ‘No, they’re not.’
Miss Jacobs: ‘Oh no they’re not, they’ve got nothing to lose?’
Lord Triesman: ‘Absolutely nothing at all to lose. Exactly.’
The allegations are likely to cause outrage in Spain, one of the favourites in this summer’s tournament.
To add to the embarrassment for the FA, the chairman of FIFA’s referees’ committee – which appoints referees and their assistants for the World Cup – is Angel Marua Villa Llona, president of the Spanish FA.
Treisman’s words will therefore be perceived as an attack on FIFA and the integrity of the game, even though there no suggestion that Villa Llona would be anything other than scrupulously fair when allocating officials. Last night the Spanish Football Federation was unavailable for comment.
Alexei Sorokin, director general of the Russian Football Union and head of the country’s World Cup bid for 2018, also refused do discuss Lord Triesman’s allegations. Sorokin has made it clear that he sees England as Russia’s main rival for the finals.
The Mail on Sunday has independently determined that the issue of corruption has been discussed at an FA sub-committee.
In his conversation with Miss Jacobs, Lord Triesman said he thought his ‘friendship’ with Michel Platini, the president of the European ruling body UEFA, would help England’s bid. ‘But there are people who are probably corrupt in Europe as well,’ he warned.
He added that he was told the Latin Americans have a ‘history of extraordinary corruption’ and claims that one representative of a Latin American country, who he doesn’t identify, appears to want an ‘honorary knighthood, which we can’t, which we’ll never give’.
Miss Jacobs asks him: ‘What, in order to vote for England he wants an honorary knighthood? I don’t think the Queen will be persuaded!’
Lord Triesman: ‘Utterly unpersuadable. I’m not even going to try...
‘When the French went for the World Cup they gave this bloke the Legion d’honneur and I guess that’s their equivalent, although they hand them out very much more freely than we do.’
For several minutes Lord Triesman expresses fears about English Premiership clubs falling into dubious foreign hands.
‘I keep saying a “fit and proper person” test is really really crucial and the Premier League leadership say, if you’re not convicted of something then it’s just your judgment about whether you like them or not.’ He said the League bosses were ‘totally dismissive of my argument’.
He added that he told them: ‘The logic of the argument if you take it to its logical conclusion is Robert Mugabe will never be convicted of anything in Zimbabwe, he runs it, he could own a club, he would pass the test. Nelson Mandela on the other hand was convicted of terrorist crimes, he doesn’t want it written off his record because he’s very proud of it. Mandela can’t own a club, Mugabe can.
‘They said, ‘Oh don’t be ridiculous”,’ he added.
During the conversation Lord Triesman, a known Blairite, also speaks at some length about Gordon Brown, describing him as a ‘weird guy’ and adding: ‘I always thought he’d be a disaster as a leader, I always thought that.’
Of the former Prime Minister’s Election campaign, he says: ‘I think Gordon’s been awful.’
Elsewhere, he speaks of Capello’s decision to impose limits on the time the WAGs can spend with the England squad during the finals.
Asked by Miss Jacobs if WAGs are banned, he said: ‘Completely.’
Miss Jacobs: ‘So what do the players think about that?’
Lord Triesman: ‘I think they’re kind of relieved, actually.’
Miss Jacobs: ‘Yes in a way you can understand that because they feel under pressure to keep them amused.’
Lord Triesman: ‘Mostly they’re going to stay in Sun City, which isn’t very far from Rustenburg [where the England squad is staying]. The ones who have got wives and girlfriends, some children there, think we should look after their security.’
Miss Jacobs: ‘What? They need security?’
Lord Triesman: ‘Well, the paparazzi – they do get quite aggressive, they don’t take no for an answer. I spent a period last year being pursued myself, it was a real pain, and every time I’m with Beckham it’s...’
Miss Jacobs: ‘Crazy?'
Lord Triesman: ‘Absolutely.’
As the FA’s first independent chairman, Lord Triesman was seen as a ‘new broom’ who could restore the organisation’s reputation after a series of sex scandals and allegations of mismanagement.
He is a former student radical, a one-time member of the Communist Party who later became General Secretary of the Labour Party, which put him into frequent contact with Tony Blair, with whom he is friendly.
Within months of taking over at the FA he outlined the organisation’s aims for the next four years in a grandiose mission statement.
In it, he said: ‘We know that football can be a great ambassador for the world of sport and the best social values that sport can inspire; learning, health, social inclusion and decent personal behaviour.
‘We are committed to the ethics of our sport; fair play and respect for the laws of the game, players and officials. If we start from integrity, we will find the best course for English football as a whole.’
But Lord Triesman has had a fractious relationships with some owners of Premiership clubs.
During the conversation with Miss Jacobs he said the owners ‘send their Press people out to brief against us. Every day, all the time, never stops.’
In another exchange he said he had come up against opposition to proposals to limit the number of foreign players at English clubs.
He said: ‘So when I say we’ve not got enough English youngsters coming through, which is true, and Arsenal is probably the worst example of the lot, Wenger [Arsenal manager Arsene] and I just disagree about this, which is fine.
‘I want a really strong England team from an even bigger pool of young English eligible players coming through.
‘The Americans [the Glaziers, owners of Manchester United] immediately understand us, they fly their flag on their front lawns...they get it, they feel like that about their country and they would be shocked if I didn’t feel like that about mine. So I get a lot more co-operation out of them than I do out of the English owners.’
Of England’s preparation for South Africa 2010, he said: ‘That’s going great, really great. Capello is fantastic, great choice. He knows in his head he’s gonna win it.’
