Fulham and York City clash in the FA Cup tomorrow, but their chairmen are better known than many of their players. CHRIS TITLEY recalls their most colourfully controversial moments

Name: Mohammed 'Al' Fayed

Born: 1929. Or perhaps 1933. Alexandria, Egypt

Profession: Shopkeeper and businessman

WE do not know Mohammed Fayed's birthday: the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) says he was born in 1929, but Who's Who puts his arrival four years later. We do know roughly when he adopted the middle 'Al' to add gravitas to his name: in the Seventies when he arrived in Britain from Egypt.

Of one thing we can be certain. Mr Al Fayed "is not a social climber and does not wish 'to be accepted by the snobby British establishment'".

We know this because in 1997 Michael Cole, then his official mouthpiece, wrote those words in a letter to the Evening Press, to tick me off for making such an outrageous suggestion.

Mr Al Fayed himself seems truly hurt that he has been snubbed by British society, and refused a passport.

"The establishment and judiciary have long shown bias against me unlike the majority of the Great British public who have been nothing but supportive," he once said.

He bought Harrods for £615 million in 1985, snatching it from under the nose of Tiny Rowland, chief of Lonrho. In a subsequent inquiry into the deal, the DTI branded the Al Fayeds liars. "We are satisfied that the image they created between November 1984 and March 1985 of their wealthy Egyptian ancestors was completely bogus," the report said.

"The problem with Mohammed," says publicist Max Clifford, "is that he does say what he thinks and what he feels without considering the consequences."

Mr Al Fayed has faced many accusations in his time: that he sexually harassed women employees, and bugged, intimidated and bullied other staff.

He spent five and a half days in the witness box during the failed libel trial brought against him by disgraced former MP Neil Hamilton.

During that time, the Harrods boss accused the Duke of Edinburgh of masterminding the murder of his son Dodi and Diana, Princess of Wales, in the Paris car crash.

He admitted afterwards that he doesn't make a very good witness. "Because I know my mind, I tend to be combative and given to making speeches.

"I am hopeless when it comes to details such as recalling figures, dates and times of meetings, but I do know when I have reached an agreement with someone or done a deal. And I do know black from white."

He does know black and white - the colours of Fulham FC. His millions rescued the team from football's basement and turned it into a glamorous Premiership side. Yesterday he made a typically flamboyant gesture by donating the team's share of the gate receipts tomorrow to the York City Supporters' Trust.

He is very proud of his charity work: "I look at money not for its own sake, but as a way of making worthwhile things happen," he says. But, as with his purchase of Harrods and Fulham, his charity work is dogged by one accusation - he is only doing it to be accepted into the British establishment.

Name: Douglas Malcolm Craig

Born: 1929, Broughty Ferry, Scotland

Profession: engineer and arbitrator

'I BELIEVE the office of chairman should go round and I know there are several very able candidates who could take on the job and do it well." So said Douglas Craig many years ago. But he wasn't suggesting he should relinquish his chairmanship of York City, a post he has held tenaciously for a decade. Mr Craig said it when he stood down as chairman of York Conservative Association in 1980.

(As you might expect, he was never a Tory "wet": "The way Mrs Thatcher is getting things done has delighted me - and more power to her elbow," he told the Press.)

While Mr Al Fayed is desperate to be accepted by the establishment, Douglas Craig could not be more firmly a part of it. He is a churchgoer, former Tory councillor, magistrate, past Rotary president and, in the 1981 Queen's Birthday honours, he was appointed an OBE.

Yet Mr Craig, like many of the most interesting people, is a contradictory fellow. His business life, as an arbitrator in engineering disputes, requires patience, diplomacy and an ability to see both sides.

These are qualities that have not always been prominent in his City dealings. In 1995, for example, a small group of supporters chanted "Craig out" after a defeat at Oxford United left the Minstermen rooted to the bottom of Division Two.

Craig replied that he wasn't going anywhere, but they could go elsewhere if they liked. "The club will survive without them. They have neither the wit nor the intelligence to run a business of any kind."

In 1994, he caused a storm by refusing to sign up to the Kick Racism Out Of Football campaign.

The following year, Evening Press chief sports writer Tony Kelly reported how the City chairman called top scorer Paul Barnes a "cheat". Tony was promptly banned from Bootham Crescent for "breach of trust".

Mr Craig's December announcement that City was up for sale, and would close at the end of the season if a buyer could not be found, is not the only time he has threatened to pull the plug.

The first home game during Tony's ban ended with a sit-in by 300 supporters. Later, Mr Craig said on Radio York that the club could be shut down if fans continued their "offensive and obscene" chants against him.

Mr Craig has seen off various groups of disaffected fans - the Independent Minstermen and FACT - and is going at a time of his own choosing. As Ryedale MP John Greenway said in 1995: "The word that sums Douglas up best is determined. He has clear objectives and he makes sure he achieves them."

Controversial to the end, the City chairman refused point blank Mr Al Fayed's offer to give Fulham's share of tomorrow's gate to the club.

Mr Craig will undoubtedly be cheering City on to glory tomorrow. Mr Greenway also said of him: "I am positive that he has the interests of York City very much at heart and suggestions that he is only in it for the money are laughable."

Updated: 10:46 Friday, January 25, 2002