Horne named FA general secretary

The FA has seen plenty of comings and goings this year

The Football Association has appointed Alex Horne as the permanent successor to former chief executive Ian Watmore.

Horne, who had been acting as temporary chief executive, has been given the title of FA general secretary.

Watmore, 51, resigned after less than a year in the post due to disagreements with senior figures on the FA board.

Earlier in May Lord Triesman stood down as FA chairman as well as the England 2018 World Cup bid after what he called his "entrapment" by the Mail on Sunday.

Until a new independent chairman can be appointed to succeed Triesman, the FA has made Roger Burden acting chairman.

The new chairman will have to have a "football understanding and who can oversee the broad business of the FA", said the FA board in a statement.

Horne is a former managing director of Wembley Stadium and for the last two years has been the FA's chief operating officer.

He qualified as a chartered accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers specialising in business improvement and corporate turnarounds, and joined the FA in 2003 as finance director.

The FA has changed the title of the job to general secretary to bring England's governing body into line with Fifa and Uefa and other national associations.

Following Triesman's resignation the consensus was that the FA's bid for the 2018 World had been terminally damaged, but on Thursday Fifa vice-president Jack Warner went out of his way to reassure England's governing body.

Warner thinks that Triesman's successor Geoff Thompson, who sits on the 24-man Fifa executive committee, will be of great benefit to the 2018 bid, given his knowledge of the workings of world football's governing body.

Meanwhile Newcastle have written to all Premier League chairman calling them to ban reporters from the Mail on Sunday and the Daily Mail from all games and press conferences over Triesman's entrapment.