SAINT PALIOS SPEAKS ABOUT RIO CASE

“I didn't set out for a fight, as Sir Alex Ferguson may have
thought I wanted, I wasn't looking for a test case.”

On the issue of England players striking he said:

“I wasn't happy with the way I felt that team spirit had
been manipulated to serve another agenda. Actually I believe
in reality the players always knew they were going to get on
the plane. Anybody who has been a player will know that the
real relationship is between the players and the coach. I
may have played the game as a professional - but I am a suit
and I never lost sight of the fact that I was a suit and my
relationship was an irrelevance.

“It was difficult and it was painful for me because I would
like to be liked by the players, but I have to accept that
in the job that I'm in, you can compromise but not be
compromised. It wasn't comfortable being the most popular
Greek in Istanbul - which was where I was. I was not
prepared for the ferocity and intensity and frequency with
which I was going to get hit with things.”

Talking about the financial problems associated with
football he said:

“I am not seduced by the fact that greater transparency will
be the final answer on this. It will take us so far. It is
very important that people realise that we as the governing
body only have so many teeth. There are other agencies
around, such as the police, the Inland Revenue, the
VAT/Customs and Excise that have the powers of investigation
of bank accounts, which we would never ever have.

“As a consequence, people have got to be realistic as to
what we can do. I see it very much as us setting the tone
and the theme and tightening up the regime so that we can
get to a position whereby we can eradicate most of the ills
that arise in this area.”