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Chris Brasher interview:; ***ALSO AVAILABLE AT FS210262004*** ENGLAND: ITN Studio: INT CS Chris Brasher (Observer Sports Editor) intvw SOF Q: WHAT IS YOUR ANSWER TO THE ACCUSATION THAT YOUR ARTICLE IN THE OBSERVER IN SUPPORT OF WINTERBOTTOM LOST HIM HIS JOB - If this true it shows a ridiculous state of affairs in the FA Council / we brought out on Sunday an article very strongly in favour of Walter Winterbottom as being the best man for the job / if some FA Councillors voted against because we on the Observer supported him, this is a childish attitude and I cannot believe they have done it for pure spite / it's an important issue and I do not believe this allegation true / there was a lot of lobbying amongst the councillors, and there was much support for him - more than most people believed, including ourselves Q: YOU WOULDN'T SAY THEREFORE THAT THIS ARTICLE BROUGHT UNDUE INFLUENCE TO BEAR - I don't know what you call undue influence / we were very definitely trying to bring influence to bear / we believed absolutely with everything that Walter Winterbottom was the man for the job and therefore we came out and said it as directly and forcibly as we could / it appears if these are allegations are true that we did him harm / this puts you in a very strange position; if we had wanted Winterbottom to have got the job then presumably we should have come out on Sunday with an article saying Winterbottom shouldn't have the job Q: ISNT IT RATHER SURPRISING THAT NO BREATH OF THIS REACHED THE PUBLIC - Well there are only certain things you can say / it took the press quite a long time to find out who was on this shortlist, and until we'd found that out we couldn't really say what the odds were on anybody / here was a natural successor, Walter Winterbottom almost groomed for stardom, a natural successor to Sir Stanley Rous / Sir Stanley Rous had resigned way back in last September; we're now in February, it had taken the Council six months nearly to make up...