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Thursday, September 5, 2013
Football Association chairman Greg Dyke does not expect England to win the 2014 World Cupin Brazil.
Dyke told a conference in London on Wednesday that
the national team should aim to reach the Euro 2020
semi-finals and win the World Cup in 2022.
On Thursday, he told the BBC's Today programme:
"It doesn't mean we can't do well in Brazil as long as
we qualify."
But he added: "I don't think anyone realistically
thinks we are going to win the World Cup in Brazil."
England face a crucial few days as they attempt to
qualify for the 2014 World Cup.
Roy Hodgson's team, who were eliminated at the
quarter-final stage in Euro 2012, play Moldova at
Wembley on Friday - a team they beat 5-0 in the
away fixture last year - then face Ukraine in Kiev on
Tuesday.
England are currently second in Group H, two points
behind Montenegro, who have played a game more.
Dyke, who took over as FA chairman from David
Bernstein in July, is confident England will qualify for
Brazil but is keen to stress it will be difficult for the
team to succeed in South America.
"I asked a bunch of journalists what would be seen as
doing well in Brazil," Dyke told BBC Sport. "The
consensus was if we reach the quarter-finals we'll do
very well.
"That's not to say we can't win. But let's not kid
ourselves, it's pretty hard to win in Latin America
anyway for a European side. We're certainly not
going to go there as odds-on favourites, that's for
sure.
"Obviously, I thought about that, I discussed it with
Roy Hodgson. He knows that we want to do the best
we can possibly do at every tournament and I believe
we will qualify for Brazil and we can do OK."
On Wednesday, Dyke described the reduction in the
number of English players in the Premier League as a
"frightening trend" and said: "English football is a
tanker that needs turning."
He later told the BBC: "The real challenge for us
looking forward is that we've gone from 70% English
players in the Premier League to 30% and it's still
falling.
"If that continues, we won't have a chance in hell in
future tournaments. We have got to stop that decline
and we've got to get more English players playing at
the highest level."
Dyke also announced plans to create a Football
Association Commission aimed at improving
England's long-term prospects.
The commission will begin its work later this month
and aim to publish its evidence and
recommendations by spring 2014.
Dyke hopes former England managers such as Fabio
Capello and Steve McClaren will give their views on
the English game and also wants Premier League
chief executive Richard Scudamore, along with
representatives of other English leagues, to attend.
Asked if sufficient compromise can be reached over
the competing interests of the professional game and
the needs of the national side, Dyke said: "Everyone
in football wants a successful English team.
"Does it mean compromises? Probably. Are those
compromises too great? I don't know yet."
Dyke admitted the hardest task would be to
implement any ideas the commission came up with.
"That is going to be difficult," he said. "I've no doubt
we'll come up with some things that have no chance
of being implemented. I think we'll come up with
others that could easily be implemented."
"Everyone can say we want quotas on foreign
players. First of all, I doubt that's legal with European
players. Secondly, one of the other theories is that
foreign players are cheaper than English players. If
that's the case, quotas just make English players
even more expensive.
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