David Bernstein believes Roy Hodgson is the perfect man to oversee the progression of England’s emerging crop of young stars.

The FA's Chairman insists the future of English football is bright and with youth development at the heart of the organisation’s plans for the future, he is confident Three Lions boss Hodgson will reap the rewards.

He said: “I think Roy is a very good manager to have on board to head that up and be a great stimulus for that development. That’s very important.

“When I'm asked about what the key things are in the years ahead then that’s got to be almost top of the list.

“We are The Football Association and we want successful English football teams.”



Since being appointed as England Manager last year, Hodgson has placed his faith in a host of new young players.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jack Wilshere, Danny Welbeck, Tom Cleverley and Kyle Walker are just a few of the youthful stars who have been unleashed on the international stage.

And Bernstein revealed he has been impressed with the improvement England have made under Hodgson’s stewardship.

He added: “I think Roy is doing very well. When we took him on first of all we knew we were getting an English Manager, which is what people wanted.

“But secondly we got someone who is extremely experienced and who would also buy into the whole game.

“There are two levels to this. First of all the England team did pretty well in the European Championship – obviously we’d have loved to have got to the semis and beyond.

"And we’re doing okay in the World Cup qualifiers. We’ve got some big, big matches coming up – the Montenegro away match particularly.

"But the other thing about Roy is that he buys into the wider game. A lot of what we’re doing through the national football centre at St. George’s Park and youth development is to try and bring on and encourage a new generation of highly skilled, ball playing footballers.”

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 live’s Sportsweek, he added: “We’ve got quite a few players coming through.

“I was at the Manchester United v Liverpool match last weekend and there were something like 17 English players involved across the match day squads.

“That was encouraging as there were some really great players among them.”



Bernstein also stressed the importance The FA will be placing on the grassroots level of football as the organisation celebrates its 150th anniversary.

He said: “One of the great things about this year is the fact that not only are we celebrating the start of the organised game and the first set of rules which were established all those years ago but I’m hoping that people will understand the breadth of The FA’s work better.

“We run Wembley Stadium, we now run St. George’s Park, the national football centre, we run 24 England teams, we cover the whole of the national game.

“We have 400,000 volunteers that come under our ambit, over 2million people play grassroots football regularly, 117,000 people with disabilities play football.

“Women’s football is the third largest played sport in the country and we’re putting £100million per year back into the game.

“So there are a wide, wide range of functions that we cover and they’re all important.

“People focus on things like discipline and so on – which is also important and we also have to run – but that’s just one of many, many things we do.”

When asked about the one thing he would most like to see The FA achieve in the next five years, Bernstein said: "Leaving aside football development, which is absolutely crucial, we’ve just delivered a 92 point recommendation on anti-discrimination.

“The whole area of anti discrimination and respect in its widest form – by that I mean respect between players and referees, the crowd and so on – is where I’d like to see a major step forward.

“Then we can focus on really enjoying the game and the wonderful things that football brings.”