The bombshell telephone calls which rocked Welsh football

AS Football Association of Wales chief executive Jonathan Ford glanced down at his mobile, an unknown number flashed up. When he answered, Ryan Giggs was on the other end of the line.

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“Oh, I just called you,” said Ford, having left a voicemail on Giggs’ normal number half an hour earlier asking for his regular weekly catch-up with the Wales manager.

“I need to speak to you too,” Giggs responded.

Then came the bombshell as Giggs explained the arrest by police which was to eventually see him appear in court accused of attacking and controlling his girlfriend Kate Greville and assaulting her sister Emma.

Giggs always protested his innocence. In time, almost three years down the line, not guilty verdicts were formally brought in by a judge. In the interim, Giggs’ employers were placed in a truly impossible position. Innocent until proven guilty, but clearly unable to carry on as manager of Wales at the same time.

This was another of those many unique complications that could only happen to Welsh football, it seems.

‘As Giggs started to tell Ford of what had occurred at his home on the outskirts of Manchester in autumn 2020, the magnitude of the situation quickly began to dawn on the FAW boss.

“Oh heck} was my initial reaction)” reflects Ford today as he speaks about the situation for the first time for this book. “The difficult thing, I quickly realised and explained to Ryan, was the fact that the police had been called.”

Wales, under their go-ahead young manager, were flying at the time. The exciting new-look team Giggs had put together had lost just once in 11 matches, qualified splendidly for the finals of the Euros and were about to join the elite with promotion to the top table of the Nations League.

The future really did look rosy under a rookie boss doing so much to promote the Wales brand and who appeared destined to land a big club job one day. Manchester United perhaps, given the Old Trafford hierarchy have hardly nailed that position properly post Sir Alex Ferguson?