Brian Barwick

Brian Barwick (born 21 June 1954), is an English sports administrator who serves as the Chairman of the Rugby Football League (RFL)and Super League (Europe) Ltd and is a Board member of the Rugby League International Federation (RLIF). He is also Chairman of football’s National League and a member of the FA Council.

He is a visiting professor in the management school of the University of Liverpool and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the higher education establishment UCFB. He was recently awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Buckinghamshire New University.

He is the former head of BBC Sport and Controller of ITV Sport and was the Chief Executive of the Football Association between 2005 and 2008. He is a regular columnist in the Liverpool Echo and writes on sports broadcasting for the national media and is a published author.

Education

Barwick was educated at Quarry Bank High School and then gained a degree in economics at Liverpool University.

Career

BBC

He later worked as a journalist for the North West Evening Mail, based in Barrow-in-Furness, before joining the BBC's sports department in 1979. He was a producer of Football Focus (1982-1984) and editor of Match of the Day (1988-1995). He was senior editor of the BBC's coverage of the 1990 and 1994 World Cups.

Aside from football, Barwick was also the senior editor for the BBC's broadcasting of several other sporting events including the Barcelona and Atlanta Olympic Games, the Commonwealth Games and the European and World Athletics Championships. He was also the editor of Sports Review of the Year (1991-1995). In 1995 he became BBC’s Head of Sport (Production).

ITV

In February 1998, Barwick moved to ITV and became controller of sport. At ITV he was responsible for several high profile sporting events such as the 1998 World Cup, which saw the channels highest ever audience of 23.8m viewers for the match between England and Argentina, and the 2002 World Cup, and the 2000 and 2004 European Championships.

Barwick also negotiated rights for ITV to televise sporting events, including: the Champions League, the 2003 and 2007 Rugby World Cup, Formula One, The Boat Race, the Super Bowl and the Tour de France, and won the Premier League highlights rights from the BBC from 2001-2004. He was also responsible for launching ITV2 and bringing Des Lynam and Gabby Logan to ITV.

The FA

In November 2004, Barwick was named as the chief executive of the Football Association and began the role in January 2005. He had worked with the FA before joining as the chief executive, negotiating a number of TV rights deals for both the BBC and ITV. Barwick played a key role in appointing Steve McClaren as England's new manager in 2006, and was later criticised as England failed to qualify for the 2008 European Championship.

Since then, Barwick has stated that the completion of the English National Football Centre, due to be opened in 2010, and the national teams (men and women) reaching the semi-finals of the next European Championships and World Cups are the FA's priorities. Before he managed to accomplish this, it was reported in August 2008 he would leave the FA at the end of the year.

University of Liverpool

In 2008, Barwick was made Professor of Strategic Management at the University of Liverpool and he now teaches on their Football Industries MBA (FIMBA).