Red faces over ONdigital mix-up at FA

Two former ONdigital directors hired to help the Football Association (FA) negotiate television rights are still listed as directors of the digital TV company.

John Egan and Ashley Faull were brought in last week by new FA chief Adam Crozier to advise on broadcast and interactive rights negotiations for the FA Cup and England internationals, through their company sit-up.com.

Egan, ONdigital’s former strategy director, and ex-ONdigital broadcast director Faull, quit last November. But they failed to inform Companies House, and are still listed as directors. The pair claim the listing is an administrative oversight and that they are no longer connected with ONdigital in any way. Faull says: “As far as I am concerned, we are no longer working for ONdigital. We do not attend board meetings and we are not on its pay-roll. We are not involved with the company, so there is no conflict of interest.”

Egan puts the fact that they are still listed as directors down to an administrative oversight by ONdigital. But Companies House says it is the responsibility of the directors to ensure their names are removed after resigning, and they have only officially resigned when their forms reach Companies House.

ONdigital head of media Andrew Marr says he has alerted his company secretary to the problem. “This is being sorted out. As far as we are concerned, they are no longer directors.”

FA spokesman Steve Double says: “They are ex-directors of ONdigital. They have resigned and their contractual agreement assures there can be no conflict of interest.”