Media spotlight tough, says Barwick
FORMER chief executive of the Football Association (FA) Brian Barwick touched on the pressure of media scrutiny at an event in Manchester yesterday, but stopped short of passing comment on the Sky TV sexism row.
Speaking at Pro Manchester lunch Mr Barwick, chief executive of the FA from 2005-08, said helming the organisation was, “exhilarating and stressful, it was a tough, tough gig”.
He was “cariacatured, lampooned and beaten up” by the media, “all before breakfast”. During his time in charge Steve McClaren was appointed England manager and the side failed to qualify for the 2008 European Championship.
But Mr Barwick ignored the sexism row that has led to the departure of Sky frontmen Andy Gray and Richard Keys, and there was no time for questions from the audience. Gray was sacked by Sky at the start of the week, and Keys later resigned, after comments they made about female assistant referee Sian Massey were made public.
Mr Barwick, an ambassador for football conference Soccerex which is holding an event in Manchester on March 30-31, previously worked in television before joining the FA.
A former newspaper journalist he joined the BBC in the late 1970s and rose to head of sport at the broadcaster. He left to take up a similar role at ITV before joining the FA.
During his time in TV he came up with the idea of using Pavarotti’s Nessun Dorma as the theme for the BBC’s 1990 World Cup coverage, and gave Gary Lineker, Alan Hanson and Gabby Logan their first breaks in TV.
