8/2/2019 Ken Bates Programme Notes Leeds United Vs Watford 31.3.12 P2
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accordingly and I can relate to that. However, what
took my breath away was the sheer hypocrisy of the
media, with all the usual jackals emerging from their
respective lairs.
Cutting to the quick, Sir Dave was suggesting
that UEFA and FIFA had hijacked the world game
for mostly financial, but in some aspects, corrupt
reasons and we (the English) should take them on.If FIFA was subject to any ordinary rules of legal and
financial accountabil ity and corporate governance,
a lot of the fat cats who run FIFA would be in jailor
worse.
Turning to another subject, the England
manager's job is In the news again. To my
surprise, I see that Glenn Hoddle has thrown his
hat into the ring. He was, of course, a previous
England manager but he wants another shot at it.
Well, Hoddle was one of the names within the 100
candidates put forward for the Eiland Road job before
we appointed Neil Warnock. Hoddle has previous
with me; when he joined Chelsea as manager from
1993-95. To be fair, he initiated the continental
revolution at Stamford Bridge, which led to the
club's most successful (pre-Abromavich) decade in
its history. He played under Wenger at Monaco; he
initiated the continental regime and attitude to playing
which was way ahead of the English model.
However, he had baggage. His close friend was
Eileen Drury who was supposed to be some sort of
psychic faith healer, which ultimately made him and
her, a laughing stock.
A cameo story is that in those days the FA were
much stricter on illegal approaches which they can
no longer supervise because it is out of control.
Anyway, Hoddle had come to the end of his contract
at Chelsea and he was negotiating an extension
through his agent Dennis Roache. At a breakfast
meeting, I agreed the terms and we shook hands on
it. Later that day, I had a phonecall from Hoddle to
tell me that he had taken the England job. It turned
out that he had been approached in the previous
February and the discussions had been going on
behind Chelsea's back ever since.
Since the FA had made an illegal approach to the
Chelsea manager, who did we report the FA to for
breaching its own rules?
When Hoddle was a flop in the England job, I j ust
smiled very quietly.
In view of the turbulence in current football
finance, I will be discussing the situation,
including Leeds' own position and the new
regulations being introduced to control
Championship clubs.
Meanwhile, I see that Sunderland have just
announced an annual loss of £7.8m and BradfordBulls are on the brink.
So to today. Watford are on a good run, we need to
be at our best!
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