David Triesman, Baron Triesman - Biography

David Maxim Triesman, Baron Triesman (born 30 October 1943) is a former Chairman of the Football Association, a British politician, a Labour member of the House of Lords and previously a minister at the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.

Background

David Maxim Triesman (Maxim because his mother admired Maxim Gorky, the Russian author) was born in October 1943 into a North London Jewish community, the son of a Belarusian father and a French mother. Triesman was educated at the Stationers' Company's School, London, and the University of Essex.

Triesman was suspended from Essex in 1968 after breaking up a meeting addressed by a defence industry scientist.

Politics and union career

In 1960, aged 17, Triesman became a member of the Labour Party but ten years later resigned and joined the Communist Party where he remained until the winter of 1976/1977, whereupon he returned to the Labour party.

For a number of years he was a lecturer and union leader at South Bank Polytechnic (now London South Bank University)

Triesman first became a full-time union official at NATFHE in 1984. He was General Secretary of the Association of University Teachers trade union from 1993 to 2001 and the General Secretary of the Labour Party 2001 to 2003. He was made a Life Peer in January 2004 as Baron Triesman, of Tottenham in the London Borough of Haringey.

Triesman contributed to establishing the extant precedent that a trade union may not provide assistance to complainants of racist or sexist harassment where the complaint is against member(s) of the same union, in Weaver v NATFHE.

Government

In the third Labour government under Tony Blair, Triesman was Parliamentary Under Secretary in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, with responsibility for: relations with Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Overseas Territories, the Commonwealth, UK visas, migration policy, consular policy, the British Council, the BBC World Service and the Chevening Scholarships Scheme. In the 29 June 2007 reshuffle he was given the new post of Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.

Football administration

A longtime fan of Tottenham Hotspur, Triesman became the first independent chairman of the Football Association in January 2008.

In February 2011, a few months after giving up the chairmanship, he testified before a Parliamentary committee on the state of the administration of English football. He was heavily critical of the FA, saying it was shying away from governing the game. He was especially damning of the FA's administrative procedures and its working relationship with other football bodies, in particular the Premier League.

Comments about bribery allegations

On 16 May 2010, the Mail on Sunday revealed that Melissa Jacobs, a civil servant and blogger, had secretly tape-recorded Triesman in a restaurant. He made comments about alleged bribery attempts by Spain and Russia of referees in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Triesman said, "There’s some evidence that the Spanish football authorities are trying to identify the referees ... and pay them." It was announced that he was to 'quit' both the FA and England's 2018 bid. He also made disparaging remarks about the Labour Party's 2010 General Election campaign, saying: "I think Gordon’s been awful." On 10 May 2011, Triesman, speaking before a British parliamentary inquiry, made bribery allegations concerning four FIFA members, claiming that they sought bribes in return for backing England's failed 2018 World Cup bid.

External links

• Lord Triesman - Parliamentary biography