A year ago today, like many thousands of England Fans, I was bemoaning our luck at losing out on penalties in a dramatic game of football against Portugal in Euro 2004. That was in my then capacity as Controller of ITV Sport - it is in my capacity now as Chief Executive of The Football Association, I have the opportunity to address you this morning and look back on an eventful, and at times difficult twelve months and look forward to a challenging and exciting year ahead.

As you may now all be aware, I have spent a lifetime loving the game and a professional lifetime involved with it. So, I was absolutely delighted and privileged to take up my post at Soho Square. The FA is a unique organisation, the focus of much attention - sometimes too much attention - but at its heart a love of the game and its future welfare, at every level, remains its most prized asset.

For the next few minutes I want to take you through the past year and the challenges we face over the next 12 months.

It is a consuming, competitive and complex place to work. Complex is a single word which sums up my early impressions of the organisation. Some of those complexities are driven by its huge media profile and that in itself provided us with some difficulties in recent times.

The FA has had to handle some tough times, and one of my objectives when starting the job was to bring some stability, calm and confidence to an organisation that felt a bit beaten up. I hope I have managed that.

Despite the distractions, we have achieved a lot in the past year. Let's start with the Senior National Team, as it is a subject that gets the most attention externally - in the sports pages at least - and let’s face it, a winning England team is good for the whole of English football. And currently, we have a very good England team.

Since Portugal we have had a very successful World Cup qualifying campaign - unbeaten - and well on course for Germany next year. The recent US tour, which came in for some initial criticism, was also a success on and off the field and I was delighted to receive many positive comments from our American counterparts about the professionalism and conduct of the FA staff involved in the smooth running of that trip.

England matches continue to attract the biggest audiences in British television and our broadcast partners, BBC and Sky, have enjoyed their association with the national team in this the first year of our four year broadcasting contract. They know the impact the England team has on audience figures and subscriptions alike - we know in turn the impact that has on our ability to develop and re-invest in our game.

As you would expect we are not complacent, but we feel it appropriate to start making plans for both the England team and supporters for next year’s World Cup in Germany.

For the last two major tournaments, England’s presence has added something special - and positive - to the atmosphere. In Portugal, England had at least twice as many travelling fans as any other nation and there was only one single arrest, either in or anywhere near a stadium.

We managed that in partnership with the tournament hosts, the police and government and intend to repeat that practical experience in 2006. The Home Office estimates that we will have upwards of over 100,000 English people visiting Germany during the tournament next year. It is a challenge for us.

Wearing the Three Lions proudly is not the sole preserve of the senior team - we have another fifteen teams who represent England internationally. Earlier this month record crowds greeted Hope Powell’s England Women's team at Euro 2005, a tournament that caught the imagination of a wider public and provided a further boost to the success story that is women’s and girl’s football in this country.

It was also our most recent opportunity to work with UEFA on staging a successful tournament - the most successful Women’s European Championships ever.

I can’t go through all the fortunes of all the different England sides here and now but the impressive rankings and results of the junior sides, both male and female, and the disability teams speak for themselves.

Now to The FA Cup, and it has been a vintage year for the oldest and best loved cup competition in world football. A record total of 661 teams entered the FA Cup last season - and as always the road to the Final began back in August.

Both attendances and TV audiences have been impressive, witnessing some classic encounters, not least Exeter City’s draw with Manchester United at Old Trafford in the Third Round, a tie that symbolised everything good about The FA Cup.

Later in the competition the two Semi Finals were both played in Cardiff. That drew some adverse comment, but delivered the highest aggregate attendance for the semis for eight years. The Final itself, Manchester United v Arsenal, ultimately went to penalties and nearly 14 million viewers saw Patrick Vieira clinch the FA Cup for the Gunners.

The following day I was at Villa Park to see Grays Athletic win The FA Trophy in a similar fashion and just as in my visit to White Hart Lane for The FA Vase Final between AFC Sudbury and Didcot Town, I was particularly taken by the style and gravitas The FA accords such occasions. It makes people’s special days exactly that and it is something of which we can be justifiably proud. And long may that continue.

From special days to special matches, and Liverpool’s astonishing victory over AC Milan in the UEFA Champions League Final. Not only a victory for English football and for the growing strength of our Premier League, but also an incident-free occasion with over 40,000 fans travelling to Turkey to support their team (me included).

Earning Liverpool the right to defend that trophy, amidst wide spread media and public expectation, has been one of our recent significant achievements, led from the front by our Chairman.

This is an appropriate time to thank the Chairman for your welcome, backing and support in my early days in the job - he has helped me feel at home very quickly.

We obviously take great pride in the achievements of our top professionals, the elite of English football, but it is also at grassroots level that the game has flourished this season. We are an association of some 37,000 clubs, some 430,000 volunteers and somewhere in the region of twelve million people are playing the game somewhere, and in some way. These are staggering figures and continue to reflect the game’s place at the centre of our nation’s culture.

But The FA has to be about more than just mass participation - we have to be about quality. Nowhere is that more important than in protecting our young people. To that end, by May 2005, over 100,000 people had been through our child protection training, and we have processed 34,000 criminal record checks.

The Home Office has praised our work in a report this year, and we expect the Independent Football Commission to do the same in the near future.

Part of The FA’s responsibility is to help raise money to fund the development of the game. One example of that this year is that the famous red England International shirt has become the best selling replica football kit in the world - ever.

Sometimes we can feel a little awkward promoting commercial success but that example, and this season’s launch of the new white England kit, are important in generating funding we need for all the game’s future.

There can be no complacency however. Market forces can drag income down, as well as send it soaring and we must always be ready for that. And we are - careful management, prior to my arrival and subsequent to it, means we have paid all the contractual debts so far owed to Wembley, increased our turnover by over £16 million, reduced our annual cost base by £10 million, and we are therefore in a stable position to consider our options in 2006.

We’ve also been able to pay out our highest ever level of payments to the game - a total of £87m in 2004 - in the form of distributions to counties, leagues and clubs - a remarkable achievement that I feel we can be proud of.

Moving with the times is vital for a vibrant FA and we support the game with more than just money - for example, we have enabled every County FA to use the same web based administrative system. In addition, 600 football leagues in this country are now organising their matches, results and league tables by using an internet system that The FA developed called ‘Full Time’. That’s your counties, your leagues, your clubs and our Football Association.

Governing the game is a role that is expected of The FA, indeed demanded of it, and this past year has highlighted some key issues both on and off the field. On the field, our new fast track disciplinary procedures have been deemed a success.

We all recognise that there are elements of player behaviour, most notably in the areas of abusive language and the haranguing of match officials that need some serious attention in the close season. We have been working with our friends across the football family to gain a consensus on a positive way forward - there is little doubt, it is expected of us, and as the ultimate governors of the game in this country, we will be neglecting our duties if there is not significant improvement in this area.

Off the field, we’ve also worked hard this year to improve standards in the game. Many clubs have received advisory visits to assist them with their financial matters, as part of a five-year program under the guidance of the FA Financial Advisory Committee. One of the high-profile achievements has been the introduction of a ‘fit and proper person’ test for directors and officers of clubs, down to Step 4 of the National League System.

I want to thank Kate Barker and her colleagues on that group for their efforts this year. I know that there are further initiatives planned for off the field in the coming year - including a proposed ‘guide to corporate governance’ for clubs - and all with a view to raising standards in our game.

As part of raising those standards, this year The FA has commissioned more doping tests than in any other sport. This is not a simple issue, despite how others present it sometimes. We have a commitment to eradicate drugs from the game and, where appropriate, to help individuals with a drugs problem.

Scrutiny of the game off the field is heavier than ever, and we have to respond to those demands when appropriate. We also have to make it clear when it is our responsibility, and when it falls to others to act.

As a young lad, a while ago now I know, I went on a school trip to Wembley for the first time. It was 1970 and I watched England beat Northern Ireland. It was the England’s last home game before they left to defend the World Cup in Mexico, it was Bobby Charlton’s 100th cap, and the scorers that day read like something out of football’s ‘hall of fame’ - Charlton, Hurst, Peters and Best. What a night.

Now, I hope that the new Wembley will be as important in my children’s lives as it has been in mine. Its fortunes, good or ill, will go a long way to defining a positive future for The FA and for the game. The opening of the new Wembley next year - with its dramatic arch - will be a national, in fact international, event.

Multiplex, who are building the stadium, have had some well publicised problems, but they remain confident of handing over the stadium in time for us to stage next year's FA Cup Final there.

The programme of events at Wembley will be spectacular. It’s going to be a fitting home for England, The FA Cup Final and many other great footballing occasions, for many years. But its build to completion will be our immediate focus for the next 12 months.

Another major capital investment, the National Football Centre at Burton, should also be the focus of our attention next season.

I already knew about The FA’s Government connection relating to Wembley, but there are many other ways that we’ve worked together with Whitehall and Westminster this year.

We’ve lobbied them for change in the policy areas that affect us - there’s been a lot of talk about healthy living and sport in schools recently for example, and we’re right at the heart of those debates.

There are a multitude of other areas like ticket touting, match stewarding and facilities where we’ve pressed the Government successfully for action, with other members of the football family.

Even if No.10 and No.11 Downing Street don’t always seem to get on with each other, they’ve both talked to us about lots of issues this year. That’s a position that many industries would love to be in, and that’s the power and influence of our game.

Internationally, a major achievement of the year was the culmination of six months of planning with our Government and other partners to take three senior England players to Malawi to work on an HIV/AIDS awareness programme.

The two-day visit by Rio Ferdinand, Gary Neville and David James demonstrated how high profile England players can have considerable impact on a worthy campaign outside these shores.

There is an increasing desire within the international community to use sport as a vehicle to assist development, and we hope to extend the positive profile of English football further next season. We all know football can be a power for good and I’m very proud of the work that The FA does outside this country.

I have talked a lot about pride in the last few minutes… and that is quite deliberate. I am so proud to serve this organisation and the game itself, I am also very proud of my staff at The FA, who have worked with diligence and acted with dignity over the last year. I want to thank them, and especially my senior management team for that, and their overwhelming welcome and support since I arrived.

I would also like to thank the FA Board, the wider football family and you, the FA Council for your support in my early months in this exacting job.

Those Three Lions mean a lot to me. With the pride in the Three Lions comes a collective responsibility, English football needs a strong and effective FA. Our organisation is currently undergoing a structural review and you’ll all have your own thoughts on its merits - as indeed I do. Part of the FA’s responsibility in the next twelve months will be to gauge the value and relevance of that review to this organisation and the future well being of the game.

Enjoy the Summer break away from the game, before becoming absorbed yet again, in what we all know is the greatest sport in the world.

Thank you.