New life for Brian

By Gordon Farquhar
BBC sports news correspondent

Graham Kelly, Adam Crozier, Mark Palios and now Brian Barwick - the Football Association has had more chief executives than England managers in the last five years.

Barwick starts work at FA Profile of Brian Barwick

So how is the new man going to make sure his tenure lasts a little longer?

The FA is having a bad run at the moment, typified by the recent DVD affair.

It wasn't really anyone's fault that the final, heavily-edited version of the freebie dished out to fan club members featuring England's greatest players failed to include a single black star.

FA apologises over England DVD

But hey, when your luck's out, it's out.

Brian Barwick needs to find a winning streak in public relations terms as fast as possible - both within the game, where its credibility has been shaken, and outside, where the perception of a self-serving organisation rooted in the past and riven by vested interests pervades.

So what is on the to-do list?

SORT OUT IMAGE

Central to carving out a new image for the FA is the structural review being carried out by Lord Burns.

The FA needs a modern management system with an executive empowered to make major decisions.

I sometimes get the impression that people have to ask permission to draw breath from the 12 board members, split 50-50 between the professional and the amateur game.

It is the opinion of many that the organisation needs some independent directors, possibly even an independent chairman, to broaden thinking and end in-fighting.

It needs to work harder at communicating the good work done and the efforts made to make the game more inclusive, which are going largely unnoticed.

PRACTICE JUGGLING

The central dilemma at the heart of the FA is how to have a commercially successful organisation, which maximises the opportunities presented by the huge marketability of the England team with the responsibility of ensuring the health and growth of the game's grass roots.

These are not mutually exclusive aims, just not always easy to reconcile. Over to you, Brian, and don't drop any of the balls.

BE SEEN TO BE A LEADER

Staff morale is a bit creaky, the media is after you and you are an easy target, so communicate the vision, take a stance when you need to and be decisive.

No more fiascos like David Beckham's deliberate yellow card going unpunished.

Make it clear who is running the game, without falling out with the Premier League. That way ruin lies.

MAJOR PROJECTS AND BIG ISSUES

Making sure Wembley is delivered on time and on budget - and open for the Carling Cup final in 2006 - is a priority.

A decision also needs to be made over the future of the mothballed National Academy at Burton-upon-Trent.

The need for better discipline needs to be addressed - to the point at which cheating becomes unacceptable because a million schoolboys (and girls) are watching and emulating the game's stars.

Ways also need to continue to improve refereeing standards and never forget that as Jock Stein said: "Football without fans is nothing."

WIN A MAJOR TROPHY

It is nearly 40 years since England won anything worth shouting about.

Admittedly, this is an ambition that is going to take a bit more than just an effective chief executive to achieve but don't forget that the public will forgive you absolutely anything if you pull it off - and you'll be Sir Brian before you retire.

Good luck. Heaps of it. You'll need it.