Woodward: FA offered me role

Clive Woodward claims he was asked to take a senior post with the Football Association following England’s rugby World Cup triumph.

Now employed as Southampton’s director of football, Woodward claims he had been sounded out about becoming the FA’s technical director.

That offer, according to Woodward, came after the 2003 World Cup and before the former England head coach moved in at Southampton.

It is a surprising revelation from Woodward, who claims to have received the offer from the then FA chief executive Mark Palios, despite having no football experience at the time.

“I met him (Palios) on a couple of occasions,” Woodward told BBC Radio Five Live.

“All I said to him was ... I wanted to get far more hands-on experience with a football team and do some coaching.

“It’s a job I’d very much like to do, but I wouldn’t want to do it immediately.

“I’d just come from a successful rugby union World Cup-winning campaign. I’d rather spend at least a year, or a couple of years, working with a club and doing all my coaching badges.”

Although Woodward’s football experience is limited, he knows what it takes to win a World Cup and is concerned the FA and England’s players may be put off their goal by speculation about who will replace head coach Sven-Goran Eriksson after the finals.

Eriksson is to stand down and the FA seem likely to name his successor before the World Cup begins.

“To win the big tournaments it is detail, real small things, that are the difference between winning a World Cup by one goal or one drop goal and losing it. That’s my whole mindset,” he said.

“I just think this whole thing with the England manager has been a distraction. I’m bored to tears with it already.”