Baresi resigns after 'experiment' fails

Franco Baresi has resigned as director of football at Fulham less than three months after his appointment. Although the decision for Baresi to give up his role as "special adviser" is said to be by mutual consent, the suspicion remains that his influence has been diluted to an unacceptable level.

When he gave up the promise of two more years as a vice-president at Milan to come to Fulham at the end of May, it was suggested he was in place to be a successor to the manager, Jean Tigana, who had not satisfied the chairman Mohamed Al Fayed when Fulham finished 13th in their maiden Premiership season. However, Al Fayed has claimed this was never the case. The businessman's media adviser Chester Stern said: "The key to all this was in an interview he gave at the weekend when he said he believes in experimentation in football as well as in business, but that you have to accept that some experiments do not work."

Baresi, who is believed to have already returned to his native Italy, is clearly unhappy with how events have developed. He was announced as the club's director of football when he was appointed, but this job description was soon changed to "special adviser" with Al Fayed claiming he wanted a legendary name alongside him to scout worldwide for players, but that has proved unsatisfactory to Baresi.

Tigana – whose contract at Fulham is believed to include a clause stipulating that nobody can be appointed above him on the club's technical staff – has enjoyed a successful start to the new season. The Frenchman has guided Fulham through three rounds of the Intertoto Cup to the brink of a place in the Uefa Cup and opened his Premiership campaign with a 4-1 win over Bolton Wanderers on Saturday.

"While all parties have worked constructively to develop our respective roles, I am disappointed that the nature of my position with Fulham was not as I had envisaged when I was first approached," Baresi said. "It makes sense to recognise this sooner rather than later and particularly before I make commitments which involve not only myself but also my family. I have decided it would be in my own professional interests and also a sensible outcome for Fulham to terminate our brief relationship."

Baresi, who has already fulfilled the qualifying standards of coaching expertise for becoming a manager in the Italian league, could have waited for the full six months of his "probationary" agreement with Fulham to expire. But he may feel he now has a better chance of landing a job in Serie A, where the start of the new season has been delayed by a television dispute.

Allegations of an unsettling influence on the players, with talk of a power struggle between Baresi and Tigana, seem to be borne out by Fulham's Dutch international goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, who said: "There is no problem any more. Baresi has gone and it is only Tigana now. Tigana has won the battle, but all the players like working with him and it is not a problem."

* Second-half goals from Steve Burton and Simon Weatherstone gave Boston United a 2-0 victory over Bristol Rovers in the Worthington Cup preliminary round on Tuesday night. Burton was allowed space by the Rovers skipper Adam Barrett to drill a powerful volley past Scott Howie on 52 minutes. Weatherstone took advantage of more slack defending to net the second with an equally good finish from 20 yards on 71 minutes.