Tim Springett examines FA chariman Keith Wiseman's record at Southampton
In addition to holding the position of FA chairman, Keith Wiseman has been a director of Southampton Football Club for ten years, holding the post of vice-chairman until six months ago. He is also a solicitor, the coroner for the Southampton and New Forest area and a high-ranking member of the Hampshire branch of the Lawn Tennis Association. At first glance, he seems a veritable pillar of the community.
But scratch the surface and a different picture emerges. On joining the Saints board in 1987 he was issued with 1,000 shares, each valued at £1.By the time of the formation of Southampton Leisure Holdings plc in 1996, he had increased his shareholding to 2,650. The flotation (the purpose of which, remember, was to help Saints raise the cash to compete with the Premiership elite and build a new stadium) translated this into a holding worth £1.16 million – not a bad return on a stake of £2,650, the sum total of his investment in the Saints. He has since realised some cash by selling nearly half of his shares to the chairman, Rupert Lowe.
In the ten years since he joined the board, the Saints have had six managers. Prior to his arrival they had had six managers since the end of the Second World War. Meanwhile the team has finished in the top half of the table just twice. Yet the board never misses any opportunity to take credit for Southampton’s continuing presence (for now) in the top flight. Funny that – I’d always thought it was Matt Le Tissier, Jason Dodd, Ken Monkou and the rest who were responsible .
In the context of England’s 2006 World Cup bid it is worth considering the FA chairman’s record of achievement at club level. This is, after all, normal practice for those who are chosen to represent their country, is it not? There is just one slight hitch – he doesn’t appear to have a record of achievement. A man charged with spearheading an organisation bidding to stage a World Cup, especially one who also happens to be a director of a Premiership club desperate to move to a new stadium, might be expected to be a charismatic, high-profile campaigner leading from the front and taking every possible opportunity to convince those in positions of power of the merits of the case. Well, Mr Wiseman is no such person.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to identify anything he has done to help bring about a new home for the Saints. At the various meetings in connection with the efforts to relocate he has been conspicuous by his absence. Even when the now-defunct plans were being considered for a community sports complex at Stoneham, including tennis facilities, the man with a foot in at least two interested camps was nowhere to be seen.
You might be tempted to conclude that he is just not the type to travel around meeting influential people and organisations. Alas, not so – consider how he was elected to his position in the FA to begin with. Remember that the FA comprises a number of local associations, for example the county FAs, all of whom have votes. Wiseman’s ploy was simple – to visit as many of these as possible in order to canvass personal support. It is not unreasonable to assume that members of these local associations know little, if anything, about the personalities whose names appear on the voting slips. Hence a personal visit, even one which does little more than enable them to put a face to a name, can make a big difference. So it seems Wiseman is quite prepared to get out and about to drum up support for a cause – provided that cause is Keith Wiseman.
To the surprise of nobody, the Saints board issued a statement stressing Wiseman’s “highest professional reputation” and confirming their full confidence in him while leaving it to the FA Council to resolve “the particular issue that has received widespread publicity”. Unconvinced, the Southampton Independent Supporters Association has called on Wiseman to resign from the board, believing that somebody who is considered unsuitable for office with the FA is equally unfit to be a director of Southampton Football Club.
The goings-on at Saints over the last two years have been a source of anger among the fans and amused bewilderment for supporters of other teams. You can take it from Southampton fans that the expulsion of Wiseman from the FA can only reduce the prospects of the game’s governing body going the same way.
From WSC 144 February 1999. What was happening this month