Former BBC boss Dyke to be new FA chairman

The 65-year-old is in line to succeed David Bernstein when the current chairman steps down in July after the FA refused to alter a rule requiring the holder of the post to quit at the age of 70.

Now the appointment of Dyke is subject to the approval of the FA council.

A lifelong football fan and the current chairman of west London side Brentford, currently second in England's third tier League One, Dyke previously had business experience of the game when buying sports rights on behalf of both commercial broadcaster ITV and the BBC, Britain's two main terrestrial networks.

During the 1990s, he was also a director of English giants Manchester United.

Dyke, subject to his appointment being approved, will step down from his Brentford role in July.

An FA statement Wednesday said: "The Football Association Board has today unanimously approved the nomination for Greg Dyke to be appointed independent FA chairman."

Dyke said: "I was brought up in a household where my father was much more interested in whether or not you had won at football than whether you had passed your exams. In my case that was just as well.

"I got involved in how the game was run when I was first involved in buying sports rights as chairman of ITV Sport in the late eighties and later at the BBC. I learnt a lot in the years when I was on the board of Manchester United and have seen the other side of the professional game at Brentford."

Dyke, who as well as quitting his Brentford role will resign as chairman of German broadcaster Pro Sieben, added: "I am very excited to take on this role with the FA.

"At the grass roots seven million people play football every weekend, women's football is booming and the ambition is for it to be the second-biggest team participation sport in England behind only the men's game, we have the best known, most successful league in the world with the Premier League and the Football League is so much stronger than it was eight years or nine ago.

"Having said that I am a big supporter of financial fair play which, in both the Premier League and the Football League, will have a big impact and hopefully bring a degree of financial sanity to the professional game.

"I do see one of the most important tasks for the FA is, over time, to make thoughtful changes which will benefit the England team," said Dyke.

England have not won a major trophy since lifting the World Cup on home soil back in 1966.

Ex-England striker turned BBC football presenter Gary Lineker welcomed Dyke's appointment on Twitter, saying: "Greg Dyke is the new chairman of the FA. He's a good man who loves his football. Think he'll prove to be a shrewd appointment!"

And former FA chief executive Mark Palios added Dyke's previous experience would serve him well in his new role.

"He's a very experienced guy in terms of a public position, which is very important... He's a football man but not in the sense of somebody who is tarred with the system... and I think in that regard it's a good choice."