Football: White puts record straight on Venables

Nick Townsend hears king-maker explain FA stance over England job

NOEL WHITE, the man who accepts the barbs and the plaudits as the Football Association's king-maker and abdication-accepter of England coaches, insisted last night that nobody would be ruled out of the appointment process to find a successor to Kevin Keegan.

"Nobody, but nobody will be discounted," he said. "We wouldn't, say, put Joe Bloggs to one side because he's said to be a womaniser, or because he's a drunkard, or anything else you care to mention. We want to assess everybody thoroughly before making a decision."

However, White, a highly experienced FA representative, stressed that his committee are unlikely to turn to a foreign source in their search for a new coach. "Ideally, and I must underline this point, we'd naturally prefer an Englishman to take charge of the English national senior team," he said.

Those declarations by the chairman of the FA's International Committee are intended to nail the widely-held theory that Terry Venables - who is thought to be considering an offer to become coach at Atletico Madrid and could thus be out of the equation anyway - will not even be considered because of his past business dealings.

"We will look at certain names put before us, and Terry's will almost certainly be among those. I've never queried his coaching qualities and never would," maintained White, 66, currently vice-chairman of Liverpool. "When we first put names on the table, Kevin was our No 1 choice. It's not quite worked how we'd ideally envisaged it, but we're very satisfied with the arrangements we have. Kevin has categorically stated that he does not want to be consided after four games, and we respect that. Our major problem is that you normally find that the best candidates are already contracted to a club. But hopefully, there will be a new structure in place, so that when these situations arise there'll be someone within who's been groomed to be promoted."

White, who has sat on the committee since 1982 and has been chairman for five years, is equally determined to refute suggestions that he alone was responsible for Venables leaving the job after Euro 96. "The fact is that Terry met me, Sir Bert Millichip and Graham Kelly about extending his contract. I thought he should wait, because he still had seven months left on it and we'd look at it at a later date. Terry decided he'd have to think about it and he then told Graham that he did not want a new contract because of certain circumstances that might take him away from the job in the ensuing months. Because of that, it's always been suggested I stuck the knife in him.

"People say it's all about one man making decisions. It's me that's done this, that or the other and that I'm responsible for Terry leaving the job. Obviously, I'm the figurehead, but we're in one accord when we make decisions. At the moment, I've got excellent support from the three Davids, Sheepshanks, Dein and Richards. We're four very experienced professional people, but as chairman, I carry the can, right or wrong. The FA has always been the whipping boy for the media and the committee system at the FA gets severely criticised, but it does stop the possibility of anyone being a dictator."

White, who started his business empire by selling sheet music in partnership with the late Manchester City chairman Peter Swales, also defended the FA's obdurate support of Glenn Hoddle after the World Cup. "You have to stand by your employees, don't you, over certain issues?" he said. "You might fire a warning shot or wag a finger, but you don't pull out the red card straight away over one stupid error of judgement.

"Obviously, beside the World Cup Diary, we had the Eileen Drewery connection. That embarrassed the FA. But the man told us `I've had this player and that player and she seems to have done wonders for them', and the players have come out and confirmed it. So, it's hard to say `don't add this person to your management team'. England managers in the past have had their psychologists on board and nobody questioned that. A faith-healer and a psychologist - they're all about the mind, aren't they? After his outburst, we had no alternative. But I was very sad to see him go."

Which suggests that the FA will be ultra-cautious before making their final decision. "It's the most high-profile appointment in English sport. It's the equivalent of selecting the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Chief Rabbi or the Pope," White said. "Some of the media say the England coach should be selected purely on how well he does his job. Well, I agree. But if he steps out of line in something that's nothing to do with his job, he's hounded right left and centre by the same people."

He added: "I know the type of man we would want, and I have it in my mind who that would be. He must be a good team manager and motivator, have respect from his players, have respect in the game and, ideally, played for his country, though he may just have missed out for some reason. It has got to be a tip-top appointment."