The relationship between Lord Triesman and a former aide Melissa Jacobs has echoes of the Faria Alam affair which brought down a former chief executive Mark Palios rather than the more recent departure of another chief executive, Ian Watmore.
It was in the wake of Palios’s departure, which also implicated the then England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, who eventually held on to his job, that a structural review was ordered into the FA and how it worked with the implicit threat that its very future was under discussion.
That review was carried out by Lord Burns and its main aim was to find a way to stop the squabbling between the professional and the amateur game and to re-organise the FA, which was undoubtedly a failing organisation with worrying finances. Burns called for the appointment of a big-hitting independent chairman.
It was entirely in-keeping with the FA’s slow-moving approach that it would take more than two years for that chairman to be chosen and announced. And that man, of course, was Lord Triesman of Tottenham who stepped down from his post as a government minister.
Triesman now has gone. He was quickly removed from his role as chairman of the World Cup 2018 bid team - which pays him £100,000-a-year for two days a week — and, unsuccessfully, tried to hold onto his post as FA chairman for which he receives £200,000-a-year.
His departure also leaves England out of line with Fifa protocol as the bid is no longer being led by the chairman of its national football association.
But there was no way Triesman could continue. He was certainly no longer welcome at Fifa.
In England there had been, nevertheless, disquiet about Triesman having duel roles with his workload a divisive topic from the start of the 2018 campaign which was brought to a head last autumn when Fifa vice-chairman Jack Warner dismissed the approach as “lightweight”.
It meant that Triesman was told in no uncertain terms by other members of the bid board that he needed to devote more time and effort to get things back on track and focus on the campaign. It was, in effect, an ultimatum.
In terms of the bid, the prospects and approach had improved dramatically, under chief executive Andy Anson and his team, but there always remained a significant concern that Triesman would struggle to reconcile the two jobs he had - not least with the FA having its own, pressing in-tray which became greater once Watmore quit.
Watmore had grown frustrated at what he perceived as the obstructive nature of the organisation and the impotence of his role. He suffered several disagreements with senior members of the professional game, most notably Premier League chairman Sir Dave Richards and Bolton Wanderers’ chairman Phil Gartside who had, ironically, championed Watmore’s appointment.
A new chief executive — who would be the seventh since 2000 — is now unlikely to be appointed before Christmas with chief operating officer Alex Horne appointed to take the role in an ‘acting’ capacity. It has led to the sense, without criticising Horne, to a lack of leadership at helm of the FA.
Indeed senior FA sources pointed to last week’s ill-judged announcement of the so-called Capello Index, which led to an embarrassing few days for England manager Fabio Capello, as something that Watmore would not have allowed.
If that was a distraction, the FA could have done without then it paled when compared to the events of the weekend. Given the very future of the organisation — and the role it has to play in football — continues to be under discussion, with the unrelenting rise of the Premier League, which is far more stream-lined, far more wealthy and far more powerful, it cannot expect to retain credibility with such stories.
Sir Alex Ferguson famously described the FA as “dysfunctional” because of what the Manchester United manager claimed was its inconsistent approach to disciplinary matters. It may have been a harsh assessment but, this morning, it feels an increasingly appropriate one.
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