8/2/2019 Ken Bates Programme Notes Leeds United Vs Watford 31.3.12 P2

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accordingly and I can relate to that. However, what

took my breath away was the sheer hypocrisy of the

media, with all the usual jackals emerging from their

respective lairs.

Cutting to the quick, Sir Dave was suggesting

that UEFA and FIFA had hijacked the world game

for mostly financial, but in some aspects, corrupt

reasons and we (the English) should take them on.If FIFA was subject to any ordinary rules of legal and

financial accountabil ity and corporate governance,

a lot of the fat cats who run FIFA would be in jailor

worse.

Turning to another subject, the England

manager's job is In the news again. To my

surprise, I see that Glenn Hoddle has thrown his

hat into the ring. He was, of course, a previous

England manager but he wants another shot at it.

Well, Hoddle was one of the names within the 100

candidates put forward for the Eiland Road job before

we appointed Neil Warnock. Hoddle has previous

with me; when he joined Chelsea as manager from

1993-95. To be fair, he initiated the continental

revolution at Stamford Bridge, which led to the

club's most successful (pre-Abromavich) decade in

its history. He played under Wenger at Monaco; he

initiated the continental regime and attitude to playing

which was way ahead of the English model.

However, he had baggage. His close friend was

Eileen Drury who was supposed to be some sort of

psychic faith healer, which ultimately made him and

her, a laughing stock.

A cameo story is that in those days the FA were

much stricter on illegal approaches which they can

no longer supervise because it is out of control.

Anyway, Hoddle had come to the end of his contract

at Chelsea and he was negotiating an extension

through his agent Dennis Roache. At a breakfast

meeting, I agreed the terms and we shook hands on

it. Later that day, I had a phonecall from Hoddle to

tell me that he had taken the England job. It turned

out that he had been approached in the previous

February and the discussions had been going on

behind Chelsea's back ever since.

Since the FA had made an illegal approach to the

Chelsea manager, who did we report the FA to for

breaching its own rules?

When Hoddle was a flop in the England job, I j ust

smiled very quietly.

In view of the turbulence in current football

finance, I will be discussing the situation,

including Leeds' own position and the new

regulations being introduced to control

Championship clubs.

Meanwhile, I see that Sunderland have just

announced an annual loss of £7.8m and BradfordBulls are on the brink.

So to today. Watford are on a good run, we need to

be at our best!

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