Saturday 6 June 2015 21:13, UK
England boss Roy Hodgson refused to be drawn on the FIFA crisis as he prepared for the international friendly with Republic of Ireland in Dublin on Sunday.
The world governing body has been front page news for more than a week, with contentious claim and counter-claims coming from around the globe on a daily basis, but Hodgson is happy to let FA chairman Greg Dyke deal with the fall-out.
Hodgson said: "I am going to say I'm not going to get involved in that question, it is one for the FA and you can't accuse Greg (Dyke) or Martin (Glenn - FA chief executive) of not stepping forward on that subject.
"I will concentrate on the football, concentrate on the job I am paid to do which is to coach and manage a group of football players. I will leave any comments to the people at the FA who are more entitled to make comments at this moment in time."
The coach, who lost Tottenham midfielder Ryan Mason to injury earlier in the week, reported no further concerns ahead of the game at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday, where Jack Wilshere is expected to play a major role.
"Everyone is fit and available," said Hodgson. "We lost Ryan Mason but Tom Cleverley was quick to fill that spot. I'm not prepared to share my starting line-up. We'll leave it to be a surprise."
Hodgson also hailed the fitness levels of his squad at the end of another testing season for many of them.
"You wouldn't notice the difference from the start of this campaign to the end in terms of fitness levels. That's credit to the players," he said.
Regarding Arsenal midfielder Wilshere, Hodgson said: "Jack is a very enthusiastic and eager player. He plays with a confidence and an air of enthusiasm which is a real delight to see and work with. We've been unlucky with Jack, he's been with us for three years but has been injured."
On Wilshere's misconduct charge following the Gunners' FA Cup victory celebrations on Sunday, Hodgson added: "It was important Arsenal took that matter in hand and it was dealt with as far as Arsenal and the FA was concerned. He must accept that. It's not the type of behaviour we encourage or want to see but unfortunately young men do things they regret; We need to make sure he curbs his enthusiasm."
This is England's first visit to Dublin since the infamous abandoned encounter 20 years ago, but Hodgson is confident there will be no repeat of the ugly scenes on that frenetic February evening in 1995.
"I was at the game," Hodgson said. ""It was a particularly bad time. It was a particularly bad time for English football and the behaviour of English fans, and it was a bad time unfortunately for Ireland on the Irish mainland.
"I'd like to think that in 20 years things have moved on considerably. Things are considerably better on both fronts.
"As far as we are concerned, and I am sure Martin O'Neill and his team, all we are interested in is one thing and one thing alone: playing a very good game of football, using this game as the test we need it to be before we move on to important qualifiers a week later.
"The last thing we really want to be doing is talking after the game about incidents, so we can only hope that both sets of fans behave themselves and in particular our fans do not try to provoke the Irish fans by doing things they really should not do."
Hodgson also sent a message to the England women's side for the World Cup, which gets under way in Canada on Saturday night; Mark Sampson's side open their campaign against France on Tuesday evening.
He said: "We wish you the best. You're very well prepared and the FA has done everything they can and they go with our best wishes and cross our fingers they get that bit of luck you need."
