Davies defiant over FA post

David Davies was defiant this morning in the face of reports he would be standing down as the Football Association’s acting chief executive after just two full days in the post.

Davies, the FA’s executive director, insisted the leadership team assembled in the wake of Mark Palios’ resignation on Sunday evening will go on trying to repair the damage of the last fortnight.

“It’s very difficult to be ousted from a position you haven’t been installed in,” Davies said.

“Let’s be quite clear. My job is executive director. I work with Sir Trevor Brooking and others in the leadership team and with the board of directors we have here and I’m delighted to go on doing so.

“Everyone is rallying round and we are going to come through this, very soon.”

The FA board meets tomorrow to decide who, if anyone, is to blame for the PR shambles which has engulfed the organisation since a story first surfaced that England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson had an affair with Davies’ secretary Faria Alam.

Reports suggested Davies – as Alam’s direct boss and the man who is said to have questioned Eriksson about the affair – is too close to the matter, and Brooking, currently the director of football development, had been linked with the acting chief executive’s post.