Along with most of the English footballing supporting public, Bolton Wanderers manager Sam Allardyce has questioned the level of influence held in the FA by the Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein.

While similar questions have been asked by fans and the press over the past couple of years, it is the first time a high profile Premiership manager has come out with the question and surely now there has to be some level of inquiry into how one of the top men at one of the top clubs in the country can sit on decision making panels that have repercussions for all of the other clubs in the league.

Sam Allardyce’s main problem was that, through his position with the FA, David Dein could steer the committee responsible for replacing Sven Goran Eriksson away from Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger so as not to upset that particular club.

“I don’t know how much power David Dein has but he obviously has a great influence within the FA and on what they do,” Allardyce told the News of the World. “One minute he had nothing to do with it and then he was sitting on the top table interviewing candidates for the England job. You would have to ask them how that came about. We do know one thing, he wouldn’t want the rest of the committee to go for Arsene Wenger so I am sure he would have batted that back with as much vigour as possible.”

This entry was posted on Monday, May 29th, 2006 at 11:00 am and is filed under Bolton Wanderers. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.