Barwick will fix English game

The FA Chairman Brian Barwick is committed to 'fixing the English game' and is taking a 'root and branch' approach to fixing it. Barwick insisted that appointing a foreign coach was something the FA thought long and hard about, but felt the FA needed a world class coach.

"The FA's strategic review will be published in March 2008, and it will take us through the next five years of our life at the Football Association,' said Barwick.

"Central to it is the development of coaches and coaching in this country. A direct part of it will be to work out how we take the England situation forward in a positive way.

"One of the ways is to make sure Fabio's skills are 'sucked out' of him in terms of getting us not just to pick winning teams, but to make sure we use his great skill across our whole coaching framework.

"We also want to make sure the coaching framework Trevor is building up has good, strong investment and we are giving people chances to become better coaches.

"I think it should always be the ambition of the FA, when possible, to recruit an England manager from within our own country.

"On this occasion we felt it was important to get the right man, whatever the nationality."