Minister to stand down for FA role
Triesman to become FA chairman
Thursday, 20, Dec 2007 12:00
A government minister is set to stand down from politics to take up the position as the first independent chairman of the Football Association (FA).
The FA today recommended Lord Triesman of Tottenham take on the newly created position at the head of its board.
Lord Triesman will have to stand down from his role in the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills to accept the position.
The 64-year-old has been a government minister since 2004 and previously worked at the Foreign Office.
Lord Triesman is a former general secretary of the Labour party and was in charge when David Abrahams made his first anonymous donation to the party, now subject to a criminal investigation.
It is reported that the peer has told the FA he had no awareness of or involvement in the proxy donor scandal.
Last month, Peter Watt resigned as general secretary after admitting he had failed to properly report Mr Abrahams as the true source of more than £650,000 in donations, which had been channelled through intermediaries.
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