Spain vs England: FA chiefs told to move out of team hotel ahead of friendly international

FA chairman Greg Dyke and staff moved to different hotel under England's new plan to keep players in isolation

Splendid isolation: England players are to be kept apart from FA top brass Photo: Rex.

The Football Association chairman Greg Dyke and his new chief executive Martin Glenn have been asked not to stay at the England squad hotel ahead of Friday's friendly against Spain in Alicante, under the new strategy drawn up by the FA’s head of performance services Dave Reddin to keep the players in isolation.

The new regime implemented by Reddin is in effect ahead of tonight's game with all FA officials requested to stay in a hotel more than 25 miles away from the squad, who are based in Benidorm up the coast. In addition the FA staff already in Benidorm who are deemed by Reddin to be non-essential to match preparations yesterday have moved out from the rooms they have occupied since the FA’s arrival on Tuesday.

On the move: FA chairman Greg Dyke

Those staff have been moved to the same hotel in central Alicante that Dyke and Glenn will be obliged to stay in. The practice, implemented by Reddin, whose background is in rugby union and with Team GB at the 2012 Olympic Games, will become standard from now on for England internationals.

Reddin, along with technical director Dan Ashworth, are now in full control of the football side of the FA having presented their vision for the future to Dyke in the aftermath of England’s first-round exit from the World Cup finals last year. Both men are based at St George’s Park, the FA’s centre in Staffordshire, where the heart of the operation will move from Wembley Stadium after the European championships next summer.

Strategic game: Dave Reddin's new plan

The FA staff were moved out of the England squad’s Asia Gardens complex in Benidorm despite it being virtually empty but for the players and FA delegation who arrived on Tuesday. Under Reddin’s new vision for the national team he believes there must be no distractions for Roy Hodgson and his players in the build-up to games.

That vision is one of the reasons they have stayed in the relatively isolated Benidorm hotel 27 miles from the Rico Perez stadium rather than in Alicante itself, where the Spain team are based in a hotel on the seafront. Ahead of the Spain team’s arrival in Alicante on Thursday, their hotel was open to the extent that fans were allowed to welcome the players in the lobby.

By contrast, at the England team hotel, passes were checked on the gates and armed officers from the Spanish Guardia Civil were stationed at the entrance. Among those staff moved out by the FA to the second hotel in Alicante ahead of tonight’s game were security officers, media relations staff, England supporters’ club staff who distribute tickets; two of the FA’s in-house television staff; the team’s official photographer; the FA website reporter and the representative from kit manufacturer Nike who is ordinarily attached to the team.

Ready for action: Alicante's Rico Perez stadium

The FA is going through a major restructuring involving cuts of £30 million that will see the loss of around 100 jobs at the organisation. Hodgson’s backroom staff, many of whom are on day rates, will be moved on after the European championships next summer. There is uncertainty among the physiotherapists, masseurs, kitmen and chefs about their future.

The plan is that instead of using what the FA calls “itinerant staff” recruited from clubs, there will be a full-time staff based at St George’s Park under Reddin and Ashworth’s control. As the Daily Telegraph reported in September, key figures such as head physiotherapist Gary Lewin; senior doctor Ian Beasley and director of team operations, Michelle Farrer, have been told they must re-apply for their jobs. The cuts are to find Dyke’s FA legacy project of “hubs” of artificial grass pitches in 30 English cities