FA seeks recompense after losing key figure

England's footballers were concentrating on tomorrow's European Championship qualifier when they arrived here in Slovakia last night, but the administrators had their minds on two people left behind.

The Football Association, like the rest of the game, were caught unawares by Howard Wilkinson's departure as technical director to manage Sunderland. They hope they will not be similarly discomfited by the impending serialisation of Ulrika Jonsson's autobiography.

Having only learned on Wednesday night that Wilkinson would accept Sunderland's offer, Adam Crozier, the FA chief executive, said he would not rush into replacing him. Sven Goran Eriksson, the England coach, would be consulted along with Gordon Taylor, the head of the players' union, and John Barnwell, of the League Managers' Association. For now, Wilkinson's assistants, Robin Russell and Les Reed, will be in control.

Crozier said a foreigner would be appointed "if he was the best person for the job". He added: "There is no rush as the groundwork is done. We need someone to take that work on and keep improving it."

Crozier said that the FA will be seeking compensation for the two years remaining on Wilkinson's contract. Initially surprised at the decision, he added: "I tried to persuade Howard to stay but not very hard as I realised he was desperate to return to coaching a team."

The FA can cope with Wilkinson leaving, but for Eriksson to depart would be catastrophic at this stage of a campaign. To that end, the FA is privately concerned that further revelations about his private life, and alleged claims regarding unguarded pillow talk could feature in Jonsson's book. Crozier insisted he was "relaxed" about the autobiography and had "only spoken briefly" to Eriksson about it.

On the football front all remaining 22 members of the squad trained yesterday and David Beckham said that his calf injury had healed. The England captain said of tomorrow's match: "We started our last two campaigns badly but have a game under our belts this time and are playing better football."