A father, as well as a football manager, Tony Mowbray highlighted the importance of grassroots football in a week where it once again hit the headlines.

The proposed £600m sale of Wembley stadium fell through on Wednesday, money which could have been set aside to improve facilities and opportunities at grassroots level.

The 54-year-old has been involved in the game since leaving school, chalking up a 20 year playing career and then 16 in management.

A watching brief from the touchline is nothing new to Mowbray, and when back in his native Teesside, spends time taking in junior football. He believes an investment in the game benefits more than just those playing it.

“Grassroots is massively important,” he explained.

“My children play on 4G pitches across Teesside.

“At this time of year when it’s dark at 4pm when they’re coming out of school I think it’s huge.

“If I go home on a Tuesday evening and give the players Wednesday off and take my nine-year-old to his training, it’s all on 4G and there are hundreds and hundreds of kids on these pitches.

“It’s got maybe four or five pitches and it’s unbelievable how many kids are playing football. They need these pitches because it improves their technique, rather than a muddy pitch in February, which, with total respect to lads who have been on the beer and get up to play on a Sunday and dug it all up and it’s not flat, you can’t go and expect a nine-year-old to improve their technique on those kind of pitches.

“So I think the investment should be in those types of 4G pitches in all areas of the country. We need more because I think it’s great for the community that kids are out there playing football, it’s good for health, it’s good for the NHS, they are doing exercise and staying fit.

“Looking deeper, it’s an investment to the country to put these pitches in, get people running around and even in winter, they are all floodlit.

“It’s not just about creating top class footballers it’s to help the health of the nation which will ease the burden on the NHS.

“I’m not a politician, I’m a football guy, I have young children and see how the nation loves football, every night thousands of kids week in week out, playing. I don’t think we should underestimate how important football is to the community.”

On watching his son, Mowbray added: “Sometimes I will put my big coat on and pull my hood up and try and not get recognised.

“It’s funny that I think I’m anonymous but I live on Teesside and was the manager of Middlesbrough for three years and everyone shouts ‘Hi Mogga’ and I spend my night waving.

“That’s my part of the world, people feel they know me because they have seen me on the back page of their local paper every day for three years and feel they know my personality and they talk to me as if we’re pals.

“My own personality is that I will talk to everyone, but generally I try and be incognito otherwise I spend my whole life talking about football.”