David Davies was a BBC journalist who in 1994 jumped ship to work for the Football Association, first as spokesman, then as Executive Director. His memoirs are a fascinating account of his twelve years working at the top level of the FA, and they reveal a shambolic organisation barely fit to run a whelk stall. Any attempt at change or innovation would be routinely resistant by the blazered brigades who run the FA more for their own convenience rather than the good of the sport. His vivid descriptions of the various personalities we have come to know through newspaper stories confirms many of the prejudices those who love the sport may have already harboured. Graham Kelly, Adam Crozier, Sir Bert Millichip, Geoff Thompson - they all feature heavily, as one might expect.Davies's love of the game shines through the pages, and this devotion to the sport always seems to triumph over his frustrations with the immovable objects which he felt prevented him from doing his job. He's like the fan who gets to spend time with his sporting heroes, but that may be why he was so good at his job. He was the fans' voice within the FA, and that was partly what many of his colleagues came to resent.
He speaks highly of Terry Venables and clearly tried to persuade the FA to keep him on after Euro 96. Sadly he was not successful. How things might have been different for the national team if he had won the day. His portrait of Sven Goran Ericksson is one of the delights of the book, littered with some hilarious anecdotes.
If you're interested in sport administration you will enjoy this book. It's one of the best football books I have read, and I read a lot of them. I interviewed David Davies on 18 Doughty Street 18 months ago and asked him whether he would be putting pen to paper. He said he hadn't decided and seemed rather reluctant to. I urged him to do so and and delighted he did. I'm sure he has few regrets.
Buy it HERE.
Here's the 30 minute interview with David Davies from 18 Doughty Street...
Watch One to One: David Davies in Sports Online | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
7 comments:
Any attempt at change or innovation would be routinely resistant by the blazered brigades who run the FA more for their own convenience rather than the good of the sport.
In my experience most fans of football routinely resists any change or innovation, not so much the FA. Who are appointed by the establishment. The corporate establishment would change football into cricket and cricket into football, if the rewards for doing so were all potentially theirs.
Davis may be a true football fan, but he has little right to be the sole arbiter of what exactly 'good for the game' means.
The TRUE game of football is played primary by young school children, using two jackets as goal posts. The main problem the leaches of the game have is, that they have not worked out quite yet how to make enough money out of kids playing the game themselves.
However you can bet they are working on the problem, right now. Most likely the plan will involve charging the public for using their own ever decreasing amount of parks.
WHUFC like all its competitors are not the game of football. WHUFC, is in the business of ENTERTAINMENT not sport. The FA and FIFA are political organizations, effectively owned and controlled by interested corporations, and the powers that control them.
Therefore expecting these people to be interested in little Johny and his chums kick around on the local rec'. Is like expecting ANY politician to really care about your kids education and well being, more then their own skins, kids, family, bit on the side, pet dog, toe nail clippings, and especially their ever more generous expense accounts.
Which gos without saying, is a demonstrably ignorant, incredibly stupid and radically irresponsible thing to expect.
Atlas
I did NOT repeat NOT have sex with Fariah Alam!!
Sir Cyril Smith wanted david Davies to succeed him as a Lib Dem MP in Rochdale.
NALOPKT!
Football. I thought we had a tacit agreement that the subject would be fully explored, ad nauseum, on that other blog, "Men in Shorts, kicking a ball, every Saturday Afternoon, Until I die."
Plus, it is most impertinent of David Davies to have a name very similar to David Davis, and the other David Davis (no, not that one.) I have a headache.
I feel let down and dirty.
This book won't do well. David Davies & Iain Dale........
didn't work before.
From what I was told by an insider with knowledge of the FA back in the early 1990 I was left with the impression that the FA was a knocking shop with PAs chosen for their looks and their willingness to travel and stay in hotels overnight, a culture of entertainment and jealousy between officials.
The author is a very nice bloke who used to work for the BBC in the North West
freedom to prosper
Is there any chance that something like 18DS may fill the gap created by its demise?
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