‘Flirty texts' girl who could have killed England’s hope of staging 2018 World Cup

ENGLAND’S football supremo was forced to quit last night after making astonishing match-fixing claims during a secret tryst with a pretty colleague.

Lord Triesman told 37 year old Melissa Jacobs alleged secrets Lord Triesman told 37-year-old Melissa Jacobs alleged secrets

Lord Triesman, 66, resigned as FA chairman after accusing Spain and Russia of planning to bribe referees in this year’s World Cup tournament in South Africa.

The former Labour minister, who also stood down as head of England’s 2018 World Cup bid, had little choice after being taped making the astonishing claims during an intimate lunch with a former aide nearly 30 years his ­junior.

Triesman told 37-year-old Melissa Jacobs alleged secrets he knew as the man behind the prestigious multi-million-pound bid.

He said last night: “Entrapment, especially by a friend, is an unpleasant experience both for my family and me, but it leaves me with no alternative but to resign.

“A private conversation with someone whom I thought to be a friend was taped without my knowledge and passed to a national newspaper.

“That same friend has also ­chosen to greatly exaggerate the extent of our friendship.

“In that conversation I commentated on speculation circulating about conspiracies around the world. Those comments were never intended to be taken seriously, as indeed is the case with many private conversations.”

England’s bid team took ­immediate action, faxing letters of apology to the Spanish and Russian football federations, as well as football’s world governing body Fifa. The scandal, less than a month before the 2010 event kicks off, is bound to leave the England squad unsettled.

Triesman was hired to clean up the FA’s image following embarrassments that included former England coach Sven-Goran ­Eriksson’s tangled love life.

Yet it emerged yesterday that – despite being married with a young child – he sent a string of flirtatious text messages to Miss Jacobs.

New Sports Minister Hugh ­Robertson said: “It’s entirely right that he should stand down and that the action should have been taken as quickly as is the case.

“Our top priority as a new ­Government is to win this bid for the country and I am delighted they have acted as quickly and decisively as they have done.

“It is not good for the organisation and it would be ludicrous to pretend otherwise, but the f­undamentals that underpin the bid are as strong as ever and will be remembered long after this unfortunate event is forgotten.”

Triesman’s blunder emerged just two days after he joined David Beckham to present the 1,752‑page “bid book” to Fifa.

His corruption claims were made to Miss Jacobs, his former private secretary at Labour’s Department for Innovation, ­Universities and Skills.

She told how they enjoyed a series of dinner dates shortly after he joined the FA two years ago, but said she broke it off because he was married. Among his more racy text messages was one signed off BKsAO – Big Kisses All Over.

Triesman, who sat next to Prince William at Saturday’s FA Cup Final, met Miss Jacobs for lunch again just two weeks before the revelations.

Triesman’s Spanish opposite number Jorge Perez Arias said of the claims yesterday: “It’s total ­nonsense.”

And Alexei Sorokin, head of Russia’s bid, said: “From the very beginning we’ve been committed to maintaining the ethical norms and the principles of fair play in our World Cup campaign.”

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