During the press briefing which followed last Friday's meeting between Glenn Hoddle and the English Football Association (FA) international committee, the following question was put to its chairman, Noel White: "Are you concerned that perhaps the England manager is not what he appears to be?"

White admitted: "There are a couple of problems we will take on board in our forthcoming discussions."

Undaunted, the inquisitor pressed on: "Are those problems enough to, if you like, see Mr Hoddle impeached?"

At this point the hacks fell about, since playing three in defence or not starting a World Cup game with Michael Owen is hardly a crime against the state. In fact, Hoddle's situation would strike a chord with Franz Kafka, since he has been put into the dock by the media without really knowing what offence he is supposed to have committed.

Friday's exchanges, however, belonged more to the world of W S Gilbert, for what we now have is Trial by Drewery. Eileen Drewery, that is, the middle-aged healer in whom Hoddle's faith has resided since she cured his hamstring injury while, as an 18-year-old Tottenham player, he was dating her daughter.

The England coach's 1998 World Cup diary, which contains a number of indiscretions even if it breaks no actual confidence, will not see him leaving the job prematurely, but the Drewery link might.

According to White, the majority of the international committee are behind Hoddle, but Graham Kelly, the FA's chief executive, has revealed that three-quarters of them, at least 11 out of 15, see the coach's relationship with Drewery as an issue.

Hoddle has implied that, if the FA attempts to prevent him making his healer available to any member of the England squad who feels the need to consult her, he will walk out. In the history of England managers this is as bizarre as it gets. Compared with Hoddle's healer, Don Revie's dossiers and the old flames who torched Bobby Robson before the 1990 World Cup were minor issues.

From a strictly footballing point of view, the press are hounding Hoddle about 10 months too soon. His present England contract has two years to run and the team have only just begun the task of qualifying for the 2000 European Championship. Bad results against Sweden and Bulgaria next June and the question of who should take England to the 2002 World Cup might then be a more valid subject for debate.

Admittedly, England have hardly leapt out of the starting-blocks towards Euro 2000, but victories over Bulgaria at home on October 10th and Luxembourg in the Grand Duchy four days later would help repair the damage.

Yet even if England win both matches, Hoddle can no longer win the satisfaction of the press. He might have qualified for the World Cup at the first attempt, and done so moreover with a series of outstanding performances from his team in Georgia, Poland and Italy, but the book earned him the media's yellow card and now Drewery has his critics reaching for the red.

Hoddle has not helped matters by distancing himself and his players from reporters and using the media to lay false trails for opposing coaches in matters of team selection.

What will concern the FA, however, is being made to look foolish at having appointed as national coach someone who is prepared to involve a psychic sidekick in England affairs.

Hoddle talks lucidly and well about the game, but when he affirms his faith in Drewery's powers he lapses into the simplistic earnestness of the converted. Then he can sound like Rodney Trotter, of Only Fools and Horses, to whom Del Boy would invariably retort: "You plonker!" This, in effect, is what the more strident headlines have been saying since Hoddle's book recorded that his only mistake in the World Cup had been to leave Drewery behind.

At first it seemed astounding that not one of the international committee was prepared to take any of this up with Hoddle at last Friday's meeting. Then again, what could they have asked him? It can be assumed that the number of FA councillors who have had dealings with healers or know what is involved is minimal.

In the secular world of professional football, healers are lumped in with spiritualists, fortune-tellers, flat-earthers and those old ducks on the ends of piers who claim to be in touch with the other side. In these eyes, Drewery is to Hoddle what lucky blue suits were to Revie.

Yet while the doubters on the international committee may not understand healing, they do understand the mocking headlines, and it is these which will continue to undermine Hoddle's standing. He could be the first England coach-manager to be laughed out of office before his team have seriously failed.

Even the early Christians had a rough idea of why the lions were eating them.