Graham Kelly: Davies and Thompson pin hopes on 2004 success

God works in mysterious ways. The Football Association's chairman, Geoff Thompson, who was ridiculed after revealing his conviction that he had been called by God to lead the game following the controversial resignation of Adam Crozier last October, last week announced yet another reshuffle at the governing body, which still awaits the arrival of a new chief executive.

Amid the latest round of redundancies at the FA, Thompson bizarrely redefined his own role as chairman, placing the emphasis on international relations and the FA's contacts with Uefa and Fifa, and apparently transferred total authority for domestic matters to the previous joint-acting chief executive, David Davies, who assumes the new title of director of football affairs.

The duty of directing international strategy, which Davies performed before taking on the chief executive's role once more with the company secretary, Nic Coward (Davies had done the job before in 1999), will be absorbed into Thompson's office at Soho Square. Interestingly, the chairman has taken himself out of the firing line at home in order to devote more time to the onerous global cocktail circuit, which in 2004 will involve Fifa's centenary and Uefa's golden jubilee.

Davies, known affectionately among his former BBC colleagues as "The Bishop" for his lofty delivery, is being reinvented yet again. For some reason this suits his arch-critics on the FA Council such as Ken Bates, who wanted him sacked for writing Glenn Hoddle's notorious 1998 World Cup book. Davies should not assume that everyone has forgotten his eagerness to help Hoddle earn his pieces of silver.

Since then, where Davies has scored overwhelmingly is in summing up a public-relations situation – be it the débâcle over the 45-minute England team at Upton Park or racism – although his ecclesiastical piety shines through sometimes.

Throughout the FA's recent strife, inflicted from inside and out, Davies has not put a foot wrong, and has knocked into a cocked hat Crozier devotees such as the recently departed media head, Paul Newman, and the marketing chief, Paul Barber.

The other joint acting chief executive, Coward, seems to have dropped off the radar. He has had a bad press lately, maligned as a reluctant rules enforcer following the publication of the investigative journalist Tom Bower's book, Broken Dreams.

The chief (or make that sole) FA investigator, Graham Bean, was reported to be considering his future, then apparently reconsidered. Now that Thompson has decamped, do such little matters as compliance with the FA's financial rules come within the director of football affairs' purview?

In days gone by it was the chief executive who bore the brunt of external criticism. Possibly Coward has suffered unduly for his natural lawyer's reluctance to expose the FA to challenge. The case against the agent Dennis Roach fizzled out, for instance. Or maybe he has not always been able to respond to media queries.

The power-sharing between him and Davies must have been interesting. I recall refereeing many a ding-dong between the two of them. Let me go back to Brighton and Hove Albion in the mid-1990s. The Goldstone Ground was not a happy place. We disposed quickly of the umpteenth crowd uprising, but its source remained. Albion's chairman Bill Archer had sold the ground but he was not for moving on himself, whatever the supporters said, and they said a lot.

Davies, who could be a pain in the proverbial when he worked up a head of steam, breezed into my office at Lancaster Gate armed with a sackful of letters from said fans calling for Archer to be charged with bringing the game into disrepute. He argued their case passionately. Coward said: "Not good enough. What rule has he broken?" "Most of them", countered the evangelical one. "Specifics, or he'll blow us out of the water," Coward stated.

DD looked crestfallen for a moment, then, like a magician, he whipped a counsel's opinion backing his argument from an inside pocket. Coward took a cursory glance at the document and dismissed the author with one word: "Barking". So Davies was forced to go away, convene a lengthy series of meetings and introduce new shareholders as independent directors to smoke out Archer by a painful consensus.

The new chief executive, when he finally arrives, will be a finance man expected to work in tandem with Davies, who is now concentrating most resources in backing Sven Goran Eriksson to the hilt for the 2004 European Championship.

The damaged Thompson is also pinning his hopes on 2004, hoping that, in the absence of any credible alternatives, his move will give him enough Air Miles on the clock to look good enough to withstand any challenge to his position when he comes up for re-election. After all, the ploy worked for Sir Bert Millichip.

grahamkelly@btinternet.com