With their busy schedules as members of the Shadow Cabinet and trying to plot a route back into Government, one wouldn’t have thought that Labour MPs Andy Burnham and Ed Balls would have much time to think about football.

But both revealed to FATV that the game plays a big part in their lives, after both featuring in the annual Labour MPs v Press Lobby match in Manchester on Sunday.

Burnham, the MP for Leigh and Shadow Health Secretary, even got on the scoresheet with a long-range effort in the 5-3 win for the politicians and will be hoping that he can pass on those skills to the next generation when he helps out with a local junior team at weekends.

"My brother is an FA coach and he runs a Saturday morning junior football team, so I help him out while he's doing all of the coaching,” revealed Burnham.

"So I know how hard it is and all of the effort that goes in at grassroots.

"The game depends on them and the effort they put in is magnificent.”

And Balls, as Shadow Education Secretary, recalls how he first fell in love with the game as a youngster under the tutelage of his first coach.

"My first coach was a local builder called Arthur Oldham and his son Bobby was in my class at school,” he explained.

"On a Sunday, he took about 20 of us out training. He'd been a professional when he was a lad but he was just a dad coaching his son's friends, and he taught us loads of skills.

"Not everyone’s going to be an Alex Ferguson, but up and down the country there are thousands and thousands of clubs and they depend upon mums and dads and it’s what makes the game work.”

Watch the FATV video with Andy and Ed now by clicking the link above.