Former BBC Director General Greg Dyke Appointed New FA Chairman

Greg Dyke, the former director general of the BBC, has been appointed the new chairman of the Football Association after he was unanimously approved by the board.

Dyke, the non-executive chairman of Brentford Football Club, will take over from David Bernstein in July.

Despite a high-profile career in the broadcast industry, including managing director of London Weekend Television, Dyke, 65, also has a background in football. He was a director of Manchester United from 1997-99 and has held his role at Brentford since 2006.

He will relinquish his role at Brentford - the club he supported as a boy - as well as his position as non-executive director at German broadcaster Pro Sieben to take up the FA job.

Dyke said: "Football has always been a big part of my life, whether playing 11-a-side on Sunday mornings or six-a-side on Thursday evenings.

"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 supported my local team Brentford as a kid where my elder brother was a junior, watched York City while at university and followed Manchester United whenever I could.

"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 80s 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."

He added: "Obviously as chairman of the FA it is imperative that I am neutral so that means giving up my current role as chairman of Brentford which I will miss. However I shall be staying on until the end of the season.

Financial fair play and sanity

"I am very excited to take on this role. 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 so much stronger than it was eight years or nine ago.

"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."

Dyke is also chairman of the British Film Institute and Europe's largest theatre group, ATG, and has been chancellor of the University of York since 2004.