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Was Triesman right about bribing the referees?
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I ask this question because, years ago when he was a trade union official, I had a pleasant lunch with Triesman. Pleasant, that is, except that he would go on about how close he was to Labour's new leader, Tony Blair.
That night I had a drink with a mutual friend, a woman, and asked if if Triesman really was that close to the next Prime Minister. She said: "I love David very much, but he has a very rich fantasy life."
And that's that. Except for one thing.
A few months later, to everyone's surprise, David's friend Tony Blair made David general secretary of the Labour Party. Everything else, including the FA job, has followed from there.
Our mutual friend was wrong, and so was I. David's fantasy was true.
If there's a scandal involving Spanish and Russian referees soon, remember that you read it here first.