Summary of evidence given by Howard Wilkinson to the Football Inquiry on 7^th May 2008.

· Football is a powerful voice in our society for social, cultural, physical and educational good.

· It plays a huge part in the fabric of our society.

· We have the richest, strongest, most popular domestic league in the world.

· Currently the best two clubs in Europe, so does success in international football matter? Are we happy to become a second class footballing nation?

· The status of the Football Associations throughout the world should not be forgotten either.

Development of English players:

· Crucial to the strength of the nations football is the strength of the federation, The FA.

· A strong federation means strong governance

· Leadership maintaining impartiality

· Strategic long term planning

· Where is the game at the moment?

· Fiscal risk taking

· Managers on short tenures

· Clubs going to administration

· Lack of long term strategic thinking

· Solution is leadership, governance and federation

· Governance is down to FIFA, UEFA and the local federation.

· The FA is negligent in that it does not have enough balance of the right ex-player, ex-manager represented at board level in the federation

· We need to look at models abroad – Germany, Italy, France, Holland, Spain, who have a host of people that have been at the sharp end and know the business.

Youth Development & Continuing Production of Home Grown Talent

· The recent academic analysis produced in Switzerland on the teams in the top five leagues in Europe, 20 teams that regularly compete at European level. The stats found that English players were least represented in those top teams.

· We are behind countries such as France, Holland and Italy.

· Some clubs’ development work is very good, whereas in others it is not so good.

· Imposing restrictions on nationality quotas, language and so on might have short term results. Long term?

· If England were in the quarter final, semi or final of the World Cup, viewing figures would be enormous; such occasions create and maintain interest and provide the bed-rock on which football is a power for good at all levels.

· This power is enormous and not striving to protect it would constitute gross negligence.

· Football is one of our national treasures and, like all national treasures, we should be exploiting its influence.

· Long term development in education is crucial.

· The FA is responsible for the education of coaches reinforcing its culture and values.

Comparison between professional football and multi-national companies

· Professional football cannot claim it has responsibilities only to itself, if Shell or any other global company took the same attitude, think of the consequences.

· Could it just go into a country, extract the raw materials and simply leave that country the worse for its involvement? No!

· Not only does it have a responsibility to its shareholders but also to the environment from which it makes its profits.

· Professional football is no different – it too has that responsibility.

· The fit and proper persons test should not only refer to right and wrong in legal terms, but also to the way in which they run their business and, very importantly, their reasons for acquiring the football club.

· Concerns should be about their long term intentions for the future of football, rather than just the profit motive.

European Union Players

· Why should a club bother paying over the odds English or British players?

· Why should clubs bother investing in young talent when owners can buy ready made players from the European union.

· It is a globalised entertainment industry, much like any other such industry.

· For the competition to be attractive and proper it must be fair, where possible relatively equal.

· People have to participate for the sake of participating.

· We must examine ways in which to improve home grown players and to give them greater opportunities to participate at the top level.

Priorities

· We need to provide world-class education and career support to our coaches. The fact that we have not yet fully committed to the National Football Centre would suggest a lack of priority in this area.

· Finally, we must need to examine radical change to the structure of football in this country and be prepared to come together to make root and branch changes in order to develop world-class coaches and world-class players.