There were red faces at UEFA after a damning indictment of Keegan found its way on to the official Euro 2000 website.

The article described Keegan as 'a personable head coach who finds it hard to restrain his own enthusiasm' and signed off: 'While Keegan could not be blamed for the injuries, his methods added vigour to the arguments from those who say his naivety, his refusal to countenance caution on a football field, would find him out.'

Although the criticisms were valid, they were not made in the usual coded language of football's apparatchiks.

When closer reading revealed the argument that Keegan should have chosen Arsenal's Nigel Winterburn rather than persist with Phil Neville, alarm bells started ringing that the piece had been written not by a senior UEFA official but an English sportswriter - which, indeed, it was.

Freelance journalist Trevor Haylett has been working at the tournament in the UEFA media department and his article was put out on the website because, as UEFA spokesman Thomas Giordano explained: 'We wanted to give journalists from different countries the opportunity to express their different views on the various teams.'

But the plan backfired badly and an embarrassed Giordano added: 'This is not a UEFA statement and it has nothing to do with UEFA. It's not our role to criticise coaches or teams and this does not represent UEFA's views.'

FA chairman Geoff Thompson said last night: 'We accept the explanation UEFA has given. Perhaps it was embarrassing at the time but it was clearly just a mistake.'