Triesman has FA suits fearing cull

Senior officials at the Football Association are waiting anxiously to see if they, like Brian Barwick, will be victims of a cull.

Lord Triesman, the FA's first independent chairman, is in charge of restructuring the organisation and he tried to reassure worried staff at their Soho Square headquarters yesterday, following the news that chief executive Barwick will leave on 31 December.

Apparently safe are Alex Horne, the FA's new chief operating officer and Jonathan Hill, the director of Football Services, who will oversee the recruitment of professional and game board managers.

More vulnerable, though, are events director Andrew Halstead, and Simon Johnson, the former FA director of corporate affairs who was acting as chief operating officer in charge of the FA's bid team to host the 2018 World Cup.

Uncertainty could also surround Adrian Bevington, the FA's communications director, and even Sir Trevor Brooking, the FA's director of football development.

In his vision plan for the future, Triesman wants to create a performance director who would cut across Brooking's area of responsibility.