By Tom Fordyce

Palios made more than 350 league appearances for Tranmere and Crewe

On the face of it, it's one of the least exciting pieces of football news all summer.

On Tuesday Mark Palios begins his first day as the new chief executive of the Football Association.

Underwhelmed, aren't you? You shouldn't be. Palios will have a big impact on several massive issues to football fans over the next few years.

The England team

One of Palios' key tasks will be to make sure that England are not banned from Euro 2004.

Uefa have warned that the national side will be expelled from the tournament if there is any more trouble from England fans in the remaining qualifiers.

Former FA chief executive Adam Crozier was forced from the job

The FA's head of communications, Paul Barber, and head of football affairs David Davies have so far looked after this issue, but Palios will be the man who will have to explain to the world what went wrong if a ban is enforced.

Just as importantly, Palios will have to manage the club versus country row which crippled his predecessor Adam Crozier and led to serious problems between Sven-Goran Eriksson and some Premiership managers.

The Premiership clubs are unhappy with the commercial and footballing demands made on their England players, while the FA in turn depends on them for the major proportion of their income.

Palios also needs to keep Eriksson happy. The England coach's contract runs out after Euro 2004, and Palios will have a big influence on whether the Swede firstly sees it through and secondly considers any extension that might be offered.

Football's finances

The FA is in serious financial trouble. A fifth of its staff have been made redundant, its Soho Square headquarters cost �2m a year to rent and the proposed �50m National Football Centre in Burton is on hold owing to a funding crisis.

The Premiership chairman are also demanding a full audit of the FA's finances.

Palios, a financial trouble-shooter for much of his business career, must tighten up the existing structure, stem the current losses and make the most of revenue sources - otherwise many of the FA's projects, from development schemes to the national side, will face further cut-backs.

Corruption

Critics of the FA say that its compliance unit - set up to deal with corruption in the game - is understaffed and lacks real power.

One of Palios' key tasks is to clean up football's image, giving the compliance unit greater support and funding than has so far been the case.

Sports minister Richard Caborn has already told the BBC that he expects Palios to insist on more transparent financial practices at England's professional clubs.

Football on television

The existing �400m television deal for rights to screen FA Cup and England games expires at the end of next season.

Bidding is already underway for the next one - and Palios will be involved every step of the way.

He will have a major say in how many games are shown live and with which broadcaster - and he must also try to negotiate as lucrative a price as possible, with current offers believed to fall �100m short of the present agreement.

Wembley

The spiralling costs of the new national stadium were one of the reasons for Crozier's downfall.

With contracts now signed and legal guarantees in place, Palios should not face the same problems. Executive seat sales are also ahead of schedule.

But Palios must guide the project through to fruition, persuade an unconvinced public that England games should no longer be taken round the country and then ensure the long-term viability of the project.

Who is in charge

The FA is riven by internal divisions, and Palios - as the new man in charge - has to start the healing process.

The difficulty he has is that he is answering to an executive board who do not fully support him.

The board originally wanted to appoint Peter Littlewood, an executive at Mars, rather than Palios. But when Littlewood changed his mind about the job, Palios' name came back into the frame.

Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein was one of those opposed to Palios in the first instance. He may still wish to limit Palios' influence.