By Duncan Mackay
January 11 – The Mail on Sunday paid £50,000 ($77,000/€60,000) to the mistress of the former English Football Association chairman, Lord Triesman, for the exclusive story that led to him having to step down as the head of England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup, it was revealed today.
Peter Wright, the editor of the title, which is owned by Associated Newspapers, made the admission when he appeared before the Leveson Inquiry, which is investigatig media standards and phone hacking in the British media industry.
The revelations about Triesman in May 2010 that he had been secretly taped by Melissa Jacobs talking about Spain and Russia colluding to bribe FIFA referees at that year’s World Cup in South Africa forced him to resign from his roles with the bid and the FA.
Triesman had claimed to Jacobs, a civil servant he employed as his private secretary, that Spain could pull out of the running for the 2018 World Cup and support Russia if the Russians, who by that stage had already emerged as the favourites to be awarded the event, helped in paying off referees.
Both countries denied the allegations and Triesman failed to provide any evidence when asked by FIFA to back up his allegations.
Wright defended the Mail on Sunday’s decision to publish the story.
“We were approached, via a publicity agent, by Melissa Jacobs, a woman who said she had had a relationship with Lord Triesman,” he told the inquiry.
“She wanted to talk to us about their alleged relationship and had in her possession a recording she had made on her mobile phone of a conversation in which Lord Triesman had made a series of allegations about bribery in the World Cup.
“Some of what she told us was indisputably private, but the bribery allegations, a few months before the start of the World Cup, were clearly a major news story.
“We had to make clear the nature of Ms Jacobs’ relationship with Lord Triesman in order to establish her credibility as a witness.
“There was an additional issue in that Lord Triesman was a married man, and some might think it inappropriate for him to be discussing these issues with a young woman who did not work at the Football Association, and with whom he had developed an alleged relationship after she had worked for him when he was a Government Minister.”
Wright revealed that Triesman, who had appeared publicly alongside Prince William on the eve of the publication of the story at the FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium, had tried to block the story.
“The FA attempted, unsuccessfully, to get an injunction to prevent the story being published,” Wright told the inquiry.
“After publication Lord Triesman began a legal action which he later abandoned, then complained to the PCC (Press Complaints Commission) on grounds of accuracy and privacy.
“After Ms Jacobs gave a radio interview in which she discussed issues which might otherwise have been considered private to her, we played her tape to Lord Triesman’s lawyer.
“The complaint was then resolved when we removed certain information from the online version of the article.”
The Mail on Sunday was condemned by several senior figures within foootball following the publication of the story, including England 2018 ambassador Gary Lineker, who resigned as a columnist on the newspaper in protest.
But Wright claimed the story was “absolutely” in the public interest.
“The simple logic of the story demanded why Lord Triesman was in a restaurant with a woman 30 years younger than him with someone not in his employ discussing matters [relating to the World Cup],” he said.
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May 2010: Triesman resigns from England 2018 and FA after he accuses rivals of bribery