The recent shenanigans at the Football Association have seen two men lose thier jobs and the game's governing body lose its sense of credibility. Chief Sports Writer Scott Wilson met the North-Easterner who has been left to pick up the pieces.

STATISTICALLY, fishermen have the most dangerous and insecure job in the country. Recent research has shown that 103 out of every 100,000 will die at sea, while the government has predicted that falling fish stocks could see the industry shrink by another 50 per cent over the next ten years.

Those employed in public relations, on the other hand, have it easy.

Risks in the workplace amount to little more than a paper cut, and the relentless expansion of the media industry continues to create new avenues to exploit.

But there is one PR position that bucks the trend. Deep within Soho Square, there is a desk that has seen more casualties than any deep sea trawler.

Forget manning the rigging in a force ten gale - if it's a really tough job you're after, try directing communications at the Football Association.

Paul Newman did, only to be speedily axed after the FA's wage bill soared by more than 50 per cent under then chief executive Adam Crozier, and his successor Colin Gibson fared even worse when he was subjected to public ridicule following his hamfisted attempts to cover up Mark Palios' relationship with secretary Faria Alam.

Surely only a madman would follow in Gibson's footsteps.

As well as managing the fall-out from Svengate, there's the looming PR disaster of a Wembley project running vastly over budget and the potential for future conflict with a Premier League looking to extend its influence over the English game.

The FA haven't recruited a madman, but they've gone for the next best thing - a long-suffering Middlesbrough fan.

And not just any Boro follower, but one who was responsible for the club's media relations during 1997's calamitous relegation from the top-flight.

After dealing with that, Adrian Bevington is more than capable of handling whatever is thrown at him at Soho Square.

The former Middlesbrough PR man joined the FA as a media relations officer seven years ago and, after steadily working his way up the ladder, was second in line to Gibson when last month's storm erupted.

While numerous FA employees found their conduct called into question, Bevington was asked to take over Gibson's duties as director of communications, a position he currently fills on a temporary basis.

His initial brief was to dampen the flames that were threatening to engulf the organisation and, as Sven-Goran Eriksson was cheered into St James' Park on Wednesday night, few could argue with a job well done.

"I don't think anyone would say that the past month has been enjoyable," admitted Bevington, whose first job was as a trainee reporter on ICI's community newspaper The C&P News. "But it's certainly been challenging if you're in my role.

"I came back off a week's holiday and found that, suddenly, there were all of these allegations flying around.

"Within a week of being back in the office, the chief executive had resigned, my boss the director of communications had offered his resignation, and there were allegations about other people in the media which was very uncomfortable.

"I went to Amsterdam for the weekend with Sven just to protect him from the news frenzy that was around. Wherever we went, there were news crews and press following us everywhere.

"That places pressure on you and, when we came back, I was quickly involved in discussions with senior people in the organisation and I had to decide how we were going to play things.

"I took a very firm view. Sometimes, when you're on my side of the fence, the hardest thing is to do nothing. It doesn't please the media, but I'm not necessarily here to please the media.

"Yes, it's important that we have good media relations, but sometimes we've got to do things that the press don't like.

"My advice was that unless we had something definitive to say, we should say nothing."

That silence helped to diffuse the situation, allowing Eriksson time to prepare his side for Wednesday's win over the Ukraine and helping the FA hierarchy to avoid any knee-jerk reaction to events.

Bevington made a tough call and got it right - a success he attributes, in part, to his formative years in the North-East.

"You have to have a good smell for where things are coming from," he said. "I honestly think there's just an instinct there.

"You need an understanding of journalism because, if you don't understand how it works, you're going to be lost.

"You have to understand the differences between the way the news teams of a newspaper or a TV company work and the way the sports teams operate.

"You can have very strong relations with the sports writers, and I think we do, but with the news journalists it's a lot harder.

"They want a much harder line and you're dealing with news journalists so infrequently that they don't mind if they overstep the mark every now and then."

Bridging the gap between the media and the England team is one of Bevington's major responsibilities, but times have changed significantly from the days when Sir Alf Ramsay would hold impromptu chats with the leading writers of the day.

Today's England manager is a figure of global appeal, with organisations from all over the world desperate to get their own soundbite from Sven.

"The numbers just keep on growing," said Bevington. "When we go abroad, we take up to 200 journalists with us.

"The day before we played France we had a press conference in our media centre in Portugal, and we had 365 journalists there. That's a different level to anything anyone really sees or expects.

"For the game against Portugal, there were over 1,000 journalists in the Stadium of Light."

Bevington's enhanced role has come at a cost, as the increased responsibility has limited his ability to watch his beloved Boro in action.

Born and bred in the North-East, the Riverside season ticket holder will be at Highbury tomorrow as Steve McClaren's side look to end Arsenal's record-breaking run.

Success breeds success and, with Middlesbrough and Newcastle flying into Europe this year, the region as a whole could be set to feel the benefits.

"It's said many times but, when football's good in the North-East, the towns and cities benefit from it." said Bevington.

"Middlesbrough's on a real high at the moment, and the buzz that's being generated around the town is incredible.

"When England were doing well in Euro 2004, during the period when we beat Switzerland and Croatia, commerce increased by somewhere in the region of 20 per cent.

"People feel good about football and football gives people a lift. As the governing body for this country, the FA has a responsibility to ensure that football delivers something that thrills people and makes them feel good."

Hazardous or not, that feelgood factor is something Bevington believes is worth fishing for.