FA announce Rio Ferdinand and Roy Hodgson join Greg Dyke's commission

 
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Agency20 October 2013

Rio Ferdinand and Roy Hodgson will join Football Association chairman Greg Dyke's England Commission, it has been announced.

The confirmation follows criticism of the FA appointing the first eight members of the commission without any representative from an ethnic minority.

The appointment of Manchester United defender Ferdinand will go some way to answering that criticism - he was also an outspoken critic of the handling of the John Terry racism case.

Dyke insisted the FA had been in talks with Ferdinand and United for some time.

He said: "Rio's vast experience as a player developed through West Ham's successful youth system, winning Premier League and European titles with Manchester United and representing England at World Cups means he has a huge amount to offer to the debate.

"We have been speaking to Rio and Manchester United for some time about him joining the group - before we named the other members of the commission.

"However, as he is a current Manchester United player we needed to be sure that Rio had the necessary time to fully participate on the Commission and not impact on his day job. It has been agreed he does.

"As a current player with forthright views and opinions on the game, we can look forward to Rio providing significant insight and experience."

The appointment of England manager Hodgson had been delayed until after the end of the World Cup qualifiers.

Dyke said: "It is important Roy can offer his views as the current manager of the national team and share the knowledge he has gained when working for many years in a number of countries. I wanted the international fixtures to be completed before announcing this to avoid any distractions for Roy at such an important time."

The Commission will now start to gather evidence and information and canvass opinions from "numerous people in football and sport", said Dyke.

He added: "It is important we do not lose sight of the Commission's main purpose. That is - finding a way of delivering long-term success for the England men's senior team, particularly by identifying ways to increase the number of players available to the national team playing regularly at the highest level of English football or abroad."

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