The FA's Director of International Strategy, David Davies, today met with representatives of both the Slovakian Government and Slovakian Football Association in what he described as an 'encouraging' meeting.

 

After the racist abuse suffered by both Ashley Cole and Emile Heskey on Saturday, Frantisek Dlhopolcek, the Slovakian Ambassador, and Dvsan Titel, the General Secretary of the Slovakian FA contacted The Football Association to request a personal meeting,

This took place in London this afternoon where Mr Dlhopolcek and Mr Titel apologised on behalf of the Slovakian FA and the Slovakian Government for the racist abuse of England's players. They have written a letter of apology which has already been received from Bratislava this morning. They would also like to send personal letters to Emile Heskey and Ashley Cole and these will be brought to the England squad's base in Southampton before Wednesday's match against Macedonia.

David Davies, who attended the meeting on behalf of The FA told us: "We greatly appreciate the gesture made by the Slovakians in initiating and organising this meeting so rapidly after Saturday's events.

"It was an encouraging meeting. They explained that they regret what happened to our players and made it very clear that they and the Slovakian people condemn the abuse that Emile and Ashley were forced to endure.

"We talked about how we can work together to prevent this happening again and discussed the possibility of making a joint presentation to the UEFA Racism Conference early next year."

The issue of crowd control at the game was also discussed but the police reports will need to be received and considered before there are any further developments in that area.

We will keep you updated.