It is said that the difference between football and rugby is that one is a game for gentlemen played by hooligans and the other is a game for hooligans played by gentlemen.

I lose track of which way round it is, but I suppose it depends on which set of players is making the back pages and which the news pages at any particular time.

Certainly it is rugby that has occupied the higher moral ground in recent times. The England team's World Cup victory made them the darlings of the nation and it helped that they appeared clean cut and able to string more than a few words together.

So why on earth would the man who fashioned this triumph, team boss Sir Clive Woodward, consider giving it all up to try his luck as a soccer boss - risking absolute humiliation in the process?

Well, clearly Sir Clive is a man who thrives on a challenge and possibly he feels winning the World Cup in Australia is as tough a challenge as there is in rugby union.

I'm certainly intrigued as to how he will fare in the football world and I have no doubt many others are too. If he does become a soccer boss expect a bidding war among various TV companies to produce the obligatory fly on the wall documentary.

It will be a brave club chairman who gives him a chance, but life is all about assessing risk and I think it is a gamble that could pay off.

There are many - mostly from within football - who seem to think he has no chance of success just because he hasn't played football professionally or spent all his working life in the

industry.

Well, to my mind that is absolute

nonsense.

In recent years the successful head of the New York fire department was appointed police commissioner and proved just as effective. Margaret Thatcher once questioned whether it was necessary for chief constables to have actually been police officers and she had a point. I think that if you put the chief executive of Middlesbrough Council, Brian Dinsdale, in charge of a police force he would produce excellent results - because he is an excellent manager. The principles of successful management are the same whatever the industry.

Of course there is a learning curve and mistakes will be made. I know that after leaving the police service and being elected mayor I initially made the mistake of becoming too deeply involved in the small detail.

That's not what leadership is about. You have to have faith in your team but be prepared to make changes if they aren't up to scratch. A leader's job is to take the strategic overview, decide what the aim is and drive the team on.

As a football manager, Sir Clive will no doubt have a support team to ensure the players have the basic skills and knowledge and are well prepared.

His job is in man management. To pick the best 11 for a particular match and inspire them to play to their maximum potential.

Football is just the same as any other competitive industry: it is better to have a good team working together than a collection of talented individuals lacking motivation.

That's why the great managers can change the players over time but continue to get the results.

Published: 03/09/2004