Terry Venables has agreed to a High Court order banning him from holding company directorships for seven years.

The case was due to last up to three weeks, but was over in just five minutes after the former England football chief decided to admit or not contest 19 specific allegations made against him by the Department of Trade and Industry.

BBC Correspondent George Eykyn reports from the High Court (Dur:1' 16")

The 19 allegations set out in an agreed statement of facts amounted to serious breaches of his obligations and responsibilities as a director.

He reached a settlement with the DTI and agreed to be disqualified from directorship and from being concerned in forming, managing or promoting companies for seven years.

Terry Venables' club Scribes West which he allegedly mismanaged

The court case, which had been looming for several years, arose from alleged mismanagement of four companies - the London drinking club Scribes West Ltd, Edenote plc, Tottenham Hotspur plc and Tottenham Hotspur Football and Athletic Company Ltd.

Mr Venables was not at the London courtroom to hear Elizabeth Gloster QC, for the DTI, tell Mr Justice Evans-Lombe that his conduct in relation to the four companies "has been such as to make him unfit to be concerned in any way with the management of a company".

The agreed seven-year ban was in the "middle bracket" of disqualification periods, applying to serious misconduct which did not merit the top bracket of 10 to 15 years, said Miss Gloster.

National Hero

The Competition and Consumer Affairs Minister Nigel Griffiths said after the hearing: "Mr Venables has admitted the serious allegations made in the disqualification proceedings and recognises the serious nature of the allegations by consenting to a substantial seven-year period of disqualification.

"We recognise his great achievement in football coaching, but even our national heroes cannot be allowed to fall below accepted standards of probity when they enter the business world."

The judgement will not affect Mr Venables' role as coach of the Australian national football team.
 

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