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One of the problems that surrounds Brian Barwick's role at the FA is that no one is quite sure what it is. But it is also true that many of his predecessors did not seem to know what they were doing - or did the wrong things. For 28 years from 1934 to 1962 the autocratic Sir Stanley Rous was 'Secretary' of the FA, before leaving to become President of Fifa. Although many people were glad to see the back of him, and he did become increasingly rigid in his views as time went on, he did help to modernise the English game, dragging it out of its insular contempt for the game elsewhere. He also promoted the idea of 'coaching'. At many clubs at that time players were kept away from the ball during what passed for training during the week (mainly physical fitness drill on military lines) in the belief that they would then be 'hungry' for it on Saturday. Rous was a benevolent dictator who stood by Walter Winterbottom long after his failings as England's manager had become evident to everyone else. He would have liked Winterbottom to succeed him, but was outmanoeuvred by Professor Sir Harold Thompson and the job went to Dennis Follows. He was followed by Charlton Athletic's Ted Croker, an affable RAF hero, who failed to deliver what he promised. Graham Kelly arrived from the Football League and sought to outflank them by forming the Premiership. The result was to compromise the traditional role of the FA to hold the ring between the professional game and football at large. The genie was let out of the bottle and power went to the big clubs. Maybe that was inevitable but my real problem with Kelly, with whom I had a disagreement on a Radio 5 discussion once, was that he felt that decisions about football should be kept within the 'football community'. In other words, don't let in any outsiders who might ask awkward questions. After Kelly had been ousted, Adam Crozier moved the FA from tired old Lancaster Gate to more centrally located and much more expensive headquarters in Soho Square. Attractive £80,000 a year female marketeers replaced the tired old men in blazers. No bad thing perhaps, but it left the FA in serious financial trouble. In came accountant Mark Palios who got involved in a love triangle involving Sven-Goran Eriksson and Faria Alam who has recently promised new revelations about goings on at FA headquarters. The organisation's director of communications tried to persuade a Sunday tabloid to but all the blame on Sven. What people do in their private lives with consenting adults doesn't bother me at all. As Pierre Trudeau once said, the state should keep out of the nation's bedrooms and maybe the media should as well. The incompetence and lack of strategic direction that has been displayed at football's governing body is a real concern.
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