Since the offered salary of £3.5m a year is over 20 times more than Woodward is getting, it should help the Swede cope with being so spectacularly upstaged by his rugby counterpart.It also proves that the speculation that the FA were considering recruiting Woodward to work a similar miracle with the football team was plucked from fantasyland. Just when we were awaiting news of the rewards that Clive Woodward would be receiving for guiding the England rugby squad to the greatest prize of all, the FA decided to offer their coach, Sven Goran Eriksson, a rise and a longer contract.Perhaps they didn’t want his nose put out or for him to feel neglected just because he hasn’t won a World Cup. Even Arsenal’s 5-1 Champions’ League win at Internazionale, which was one of the finest victories on European soil by an English side, fought a losing battle with the homecoming heroes for media space on Wednesday. Not through any accomplishment by their football team on the field of play – don’t be silly – but for their treasured ability to cast a fascinating confusion over the nation. Just when we thought that it might take some time for football to wrest attention back from England’s rugby world conquerors, the Football Association have pulled off a major recapturing of the headlines It wasn’t easy.

England face a tough start in next summer’s Euro 2004 championships having been drawn to play the current European champions France in their opening game. The chief executive decided soon after taking office in July that Eriksson was the man for the long term, and hints were first dropped about a contract extension the following month. But the Swede has proved reluctant to commit himself publicly even beyond next summer, when many feel he will return to club football in this country or in Italy.Now the spotlight after today’s Euro 2004 draw will inevitably shine on his future plans as much as next June’s opponents. Brooking appeared to appreciate that point yesterday when he said: “If anything happens in the new year about a contract then fine, but everyone’s job is to take any distraction away from Sven and the players so they can perform well.”. As the recent dramas over Rio Ferdinand and Alan Smith have shown, there is a similar role to be filled at full international level and, significantly, one FA insider pointed yesterday to Brooking’s importance as “a conduit between the administrative side and the football team”.

The emphasis is on the word “development”, and he will have much to say about bringing up and bringing on young footballers; conflict could arise early if he favours resurrecting the National Football Centre at Burton upon Trent, currently a victim of the savage cost-cutting imposed after Crozier’s departure. He will doubtless want to bend the Brooking ear as soon as he returns about the lack of co-operation from leading clubs in releasing players for that trip and similar under-age matches.That sort of liaison between clubs and the FA is an area in which Brooking can use all the respect he has earned down the years to badly needed effect. Wilkinson’s deputy, Les Reed, the former Charlton Athletic coach, is still doing the job in an acting capacity, which currently involves leading a seriously understrength England Under-20 team at the World Youth Championship in Dubai. He will also be instrumental in identifying an eventual successor to Sven Goran Eriksson.It is not intended that Brooking will take over the duties of technical director, on which a salary has been saved since Howard Wilkinson resigned in the same month as Crozier for his ill-fated dalliance with Sunderland. Yesterday he said his priorities would include lobbying the Government for more funds and increasing the amount of PE in schools.