1 October 2007
VIDEO: The FA Roadshow Question Time

Brian Barwick, Steve McClaren and Sir Trevor Brooking took questions from fans at The FA Roadshow at WBA.


Around 300 football fans from seven clubs across the West Midlands were treated to nearly two hours with The FA’s Chief Executive Brian Barwick, Head Coach Steve McClaren, Director Of Football Development Sir Trevor Brooking and Director Of Communications Adrian Bevington on Monday evening.

Taking place at The Hawthorns, home of West Bromwich Albion, the question and answer session was part of the first ever FA Roadshow which also saw 60 local youngsters taking part in training sessions with five FA Skills Coaches under The FA Tesco Skills Programme.

Supporters from clubs such as West Bromwich Albion, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Birmingham City, Walsall, Aston Villa, Coventry City and Kidderminster Harriers were invited to submit their questions to the panel and a broad range of topics were covered throughout the evening, hosted by BBC FiveLive’s Mark Clemmit.

The evening started off with a question about the increasing number of foreign managers and players in the game and why no English manager has won the Premier League or been appointed by one of the ‘big four’ clubs in recent years and that certainly got things going.

The topic of cheating and diving was next on the agenda, with supporters keen to know what was going to be done by The FA to try and stamp it out of the game, whilst Barwick revealed one of his own personal ambitions is to make sure that all players’ behaviour towards match officials can be improved right from the grass roots level to the top flight.

Progress on the National Football Centre at Burton was also high on the agenda of questions fired at the panel, as were ticket prices and the atmosphere at Wembley and how the distribution of tickets for last season’s play-off finals might be changed for the 2007-08 campaign.

McClaren spoke on how the pressures of being Head Coach of England differ from those of being a club manager in the Premiership, whilst fans were also keen to know how there could be a change in the distribution of television monies to favour clubs outside of the top flight.

With England’s trip to Russia coming up in November, McClaren was asked about his preparation for a game which will be held on a plastic pitch in Moscow and the evening ended with the Head Coach giving his thoughts on recent England performances and ambitions for the future.

“We’re delighted to be here on our first annual Roadshow and it’s been a great day,” said Barwick at the event.

“We always want to listen to the fans, and whilst we’re a London based organisation, our work covers the entire country.

“There are seven million people who play football and we want to hear what people think about football.”

Footage of the evening can be seen right here, so make sure you watch what had to be said!

To watch the full question time session from WBA, click on the link at the top of the page..