Brian Barwick Quotations

Until you sit where Sven sits, the profile of the job is unimaginable and with it the newsworthy value follows it.

Peter Osgood made a wonderful contribution to English football, playing four times for the national side and serving clubs like Chelsea and Southampton with such great distinction.

I'm a great believer in drawing experience and knowledge from people.

If and when we qualify, we would go into the World Cup as one of the teams that can win it.

I expect him to be with us until the European Championship of 2008. He enjoys the job and we enjoy having him. There is a bigger picture; we are not naive, but we are dealing with having Sven on board for some time to come.

I think it's evident now we were in Lisbon yesterday, speaking to Luiz Felipe Scolari as part of our ongoing process of recruiting the next England senior national coach for this autumn, and that process continues at pace.

I was keen to see Eileen Drewery because I thought her name was Eileen Brewery.

Sven's contract goes through to 2008 and that's what we're working to,

Thankfully, these kinds of incidents are few and far between these days and that is due to the increased vigilance of our game. It is also why behavior of this nature must be treated seriously and swiftly - sending a clear message to those involved that their actions will not be tolerated.

I was in Lisbon yesterday talking to Luiz Felipe Scolari as part of our ongoing process to recruit the next senior England national coach. That process continues apace.

We have been taking advice from experts and they still think it is on course to finish on time.

We've got the best part of six months in real terms - the first international after the World Cup is in August - but that will not be the way we play it. I hope the appointment won't be after the World Cup and there's no reason why it should be. We have the opportunity of appointing before the World Cup and the upside of that is they can watch the side they will inherit in August with a sense of semi-distant ownership, and it may well be an advantage.

We have the opportunity, if we want, to get the person in place hopefully before the finals.

We were speaking to Felipe as part of the process of recruiting the next coach and that process continues.

We are in discussions with FIFA on retrospective disciplinary action and we have raised diving as a priority area where video evidence could be used.

We are not prepared to compromise or take any risk on this.

We have contacted Mike this morning and will meet with him early next week. If he provides us with evidence we will investigate fully.

We are clearly giving some serious consideration to putting together a bid for the tournament.

We welcome the fact that he (Newell) has said that he is willing to provide names and details of people who have breached the rules. If he provides us with evidence we will investigate fully.

We will be in the business of appointing who we believe will be the right man to take care of one of the finest international teams in the world.

We have about five months (to make the appointment). This is not the time to look any further forward than the World Cup. But I have gone on record as saying we want the best man for the job and if that is an Englishman, so much the better.

We welcome the prompt action taken by the Burnley magistrates to jail Michael Lewis for five months today.

We...insisted that clamping down on diving be made a priority area at this summer's World Cup.

Due to the magnitude of the Final, we are not prepared to compromise or take any risks on the stadium being unable to stage such a significant event.

Equally, we have taken the prudent step to book the Millennium Stadium.

These are very serious claims that Mike Newell has made.

It would be disrespectful to discuss successors now but the key thing would be to find the best man for the job. If he's English, then so be it.

Alan Smith was given an opportunity to play for England and chose to play elsewhere. It's probably not the cleverest thing he's done.

This is great news for England fans and the result of intensive lobbying by the FA.

This is very sad news. Peter Osgood made a wonderful contribution to English football.

This is the right outcome. It's been a long day but a fruitful day. The FA and Sven felt it was important to clarify his future and this is for the benefit of everyone. There has been so much speculation surrounding this matter in recent weeks and months; it was important to resolve it now.

There's been some ordering out we went to the local Taco Bell and made a 30-taco order and they were very pleased to see us.

I'm giving Sven an opportunity to take the best English side since 1966 to a World Cup, and that's my way of saying I have a fantastic degree of confidence in his ability to deliver for us.

I like him as a man and I think he's proved with his competitive record that he's an extremely good England coach and I get on will with him personally.

I am asking Sven to take what I believe to be the best English team since 1966 to the World Cup and try and win it. There was an opportunity for some significant clarification of the situation. We discussed it long and hard and felt the best way forward was him to focus on 2006. And then for him and us to part company in good heart and with good grace.

I can confirm that this season's FA Cup final will be held at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on May 13.

Allegations made during the past week have not been good for the game's image. However, the FA fully appreciates the importance of Sven and the England team in the build up to and during the World Cup.