He recognised that the game's image had suffered due to a series of unsavoury incidents on and off the field and announced a clean up campaign. It was needed. And still is. Events of the last few weeks have demonstrated just how much football now needs strong and wise leadership.
Controversies like David Beckham's booking 'confession', the crowd trouble at Millwall and Chelsea, Adrian Mutu's sacking and the 'pizza war' at Old Trafford have brutally exposed the lack of direction at the FA.
The Beckham episode revealed the impotence of the current FA hierarchy. Having admitted that he got himself deliberately booked against Wales, he expected to be charged with bringing the game into disrepute.
It was an open and shut case to all except the compliance unit at the FA. They turned the FA into a laughing stock, when they decided there was insufficient evidence to charge him.
The FA need a chief executive who has an instinctive feel for the game, someone like Sir Trevor Brooking, who is the FA's director of development.
Brooking - who knows how difficult it would be to unite various factions of football - refuses to put himself forward. But Brooking and all the other major players at Soho Square know that unless the FA get their act together the prospect of a government regulator becoming involved could soon be a reality.
