It would be an exaggeration to say that I knew Lord Triesman very well. I can only assess a tiny part of his political, business and sports politics work to some extent. But I had the pleasure and honour of meeting him several times, talking to him on a few occasions and, in a sense, working with him on a project for a number of years. Among the many officials from the Olympic world and the parallel world of FIFA with whom I have been involved for decades was David Maxim Triesman one of the best. Open, fair, friendly, engaging – quite remarkable.
I last had dealings with him exactly four years ago. Back then, in January 2022, my friend, the great investigative journalist Andrew Jennings, to whom the Olympic world and journalism owe so much, passed away. I immediately decided to publish a magazine in Andrew's honour – which I succeeded in doing with the help of Bonita Mersiades and other friends and colleagues, and even Joseph Blatter, Dick Pound and others from the other site of the curtain.
More than 50 authors from all over the world – friends, companions and opponents – contributed to this tribute.
Lord Triesman was one of the first to agree.
He replied to me after just a few minutes:
Dear Jens
Thank you so much. A very brief note – I’d be honoured to write about Andrew. He was a significant person in my sport and personal life. Of course his legacy goes beyond journalism – you are absolutely right. Some very basic stuff about honesty and tenacity. Remarkable man. Incidentally, as the Trump years have emphasised time and again, creating conspiracy theories is also a business model and people who market it can make an absolute fortune as they did in FIFA.
It would be a good time for FIFA to apologise to Andrew (and possibly others) to mark his contribution to their essential journey, should they ever make it, toward honesty.
My best regards
David
A few days later, he sent me a wonderful article that made me laugh out loud. I would like to recommend and publish again today. It is about Jennings and Joseph Blatter and FIFA, about journalism and propaganda and the work of despicable advisors – a dirty mix that made things difficult for Triesman.
I am convinced that many of you – hundreds of the world's most important sports officials are reading this newsletter – would only need to swap a few names around, and then this text could have been written by you, couldn't it? Don't many of you have similar experiences?
I don't want to go into any more detail today. Some of you will have known David, whether from politics or his crazy two years at the helm of the FA. Other readers will no longer remember the whole story, which I am only touching on today. Feel free to read up on it. In any case, David Triesman was somehow not cut out for the job. He came from outside, and they let him feel it. Nationally and internationally, especially since he criticised the omnipresent corruption in the FIFA empire at the time – even before the completely corrupt awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups on 2 December 2010.
On that day, whole armies of so-called FIFA critics were born. From then on, it was easy. From then on, many just went with the flow, in the media and in politics.
In the many years before, there had been only a few of us worldwide who were brutally persecuted even in our own camp.
