Dartmouth Golf & Country Club is looking forward to an exciting new era under chairman Greg Dyke after it was revealed he is set to become the new head of the Football Association.
Dyke, 65, will take over as FA chairman from David Bernstein when he leaves the post after two-and-a-half years in July – subject to approval by the FA Council on Thursday May 16. The appointment will take effect from July 13.
Dyke, a former director general of the BBC, took up his role at Dartmouth in 1996 and has been responsible for overseeing the most successful period in the history of the South Devon resort.
While golf continues to be more popular than ever at the 27-hole complex, Dartmouth Golf & Country Club has witnessed major growth in leisure, spa and family bookings under Dyke’s leadership and managing director Jamie Waugh welcomed news of his new appointment.
Waugh said: “Greg has been a key to the success that Dartmouth Golf & Country Club has enjoyed in the last two decades and his new role is recognition for his achievements throughout his career.
“Everyone at the resort is delighted for him. He has always been very passionate about his football and he will be able to indulge that further with his impending appointment, while continuing to work hard to ensure Dartmouth Golf & Country Club enjoys continued success.”
Dyke was the unanimous choice of the FA Board and his impending appointment followed a recruitment process led by FA independent director Roger Devlin (chairman of the Nominations Committee) with fellow board members Roger Burden and Keith Lamb.
In a high-profile broadcasting career, Dyke has also worked as managing director of London Weekend Television as well as his former role at the BBC.
Dyke has had a long background in football. He was a director of Manchester United in the late 90s and was on the board when the club won the treble in 1999. Since 2006 he has been non-executive chairman of Brentford Football Club, the team he supported as a boy. He will relinquish this role at the end of the season to take up his new post at The FA.
Dyke said: “Football has always been a big part of my life whether playing 11-a-side on Sunday mornings or six-a-side on Thursday evenings. I was bought up in a household where my father was much more interested in whether or not you had won at football than whether you had passed your exams. In my case that was just as well.
“I still turn out to play six-a-side some Thursday evenings although at my age I seem to spend more time injured than playing.
“I supported my local team Brentford as a kid where my elder brother was a junior, watched YorkCity while at university and followed Manchester United whenever I could.
“I got involved in how the game was run when I was first involved in buying sports rights as chairman of ITV Sport in the late eighties and later at the BBC. I learnt a lot in the years when I was on the Board of Manchester United and have seen the other side of the professional game at Brentford.”
Currently chairman of both the British Film Institute and Europe’s largest theatre group ATG, Dyke will give up both his role at Brentford and as a non-executive director at German broadcaster Pro Sieben in the next few months. He has been chancellor of the University of York since 2004.
He added: “Obviously as chairman of The FA it is imperative that I am neutral so that means giving up my current role as chairman of Brentford which I will miss. However I shall be staying on until the end of the season.
“As I leave I would like to pay tribute to everyone at Brentford, the staff, the players and manager and particularly the fans. I hope their loyalty is rewarded with promotion, it deserves to be.
“I am very excited to take on this role with The FA. At the grass roots seven million people play football every weekend, women’s football is booming and the ambition is for it to be the second biggest team participation sport in England behind only the men’s game, we have the best known, most successful league in the world with the Premier League and the Football League is so much stronger than it was eight years or nine ago.
“Having said that, I am a big supporter of financial fair play which, in both the Premier League and the Football League, will have a big impact and hopefully bring a degree of financial sanity to the professional game.
“I do see one of the most important tasks for The FA is, over time, to make thoughtful changes which will benefit the England team. The FA have made a great start by rebuilding Wembley and developing great facilities at St. George’s Park but it is essential that The FA finds a way to ensure that more talented young English footballers are given their chance in the professional game at the highest level.”
Following an FA board meeting at Wembley, Devlin said: “We have every confidence we have got the right appointment in Greg Dyke. He has an outstanding understanding of football, strong relationships across the industry and Government, while retaining a great empathy for the game.
“I am confident that Greg will be a successful chairman, who will lead The FA from the front and be respected by the football community. We have an excellent staff at The FA and I know that Greg is looking forward to working with them.”
Situated in 225 acres of south Devon countryside, just outside the beautiful town of Dartmouth, Dartmouth Golf & Country Club boasts 27 holes of golf with the 18-hole Championship Course and Dartmouth Course complementing each other nicely. In addition to golf, the resort also boasts first-class leisure facilities, which include an indoor pool, Jacuzzi, sauna and spa.
Dartmouth Golf & Country Club www.dgcc.co.uk