Former FA head Barwick honoured with OBE for dedication to ‘hobby’

Former FA chief executive Brian Barwick said he was fortunate to have spent four decades working in his hobby as he was made an OBE by the Prince of Wales.

Mr Barwick, who for many years was a national figure in sports administration, described being the boss of the Football Association as “challenging, difficult, exciting, wonderful – and all on the same afternoon”.

He was awarded the honour during one of two investiture ceremonies staged at Windsor Castle with the Princess Royal conducting the other.

Mr Barwick said: “The FA was challenging, difficult, exciting, wonderful – and all on the same afternoon. It was just a phenomenal four years.”

As well as the Football Association, which he headed from 2005 to 2008, Mr Barwick was chairman of the Rugby Football League, rugby league’s Super League competition and football’s National League – a post he will relinquish at the end of this season – and he is president of the Rugby League World Cup 2021.

Speaking about his career he added: “I’ve had a full and varied and fantastic life, I’ve been very fortunate, I’ve worked in something that’s my hobby, and of course there have been some tough days in there, but on the whole it’s been a wonderful four decades.

“But equally I’ve been able to put something back, I work with students, I’m on an advisory board of a university and I work very hard to pass on what I’ve learnt.

“It’s never been a job, I lived with it all my life I was following sport, collecting scrap books – I’ve lived and breathed it all my life.”