LAST week’s County Gazette featured part one of Richard Browne’s interview with Scott Burnett, who hails from Williton and has completed the ‘On the Board’ programme through the Professional Footballers Association.

Part two focuses on the future, for Burnett and football...

MINEHEAD AFC may not have won promotion from Division 1 of the Somerset County League this season, but executive committee member Scott Burnett believes the club is heading in the right direction.

The 43-year-old said: “I think lots of good work is being done at the club, and the youth section and the senior set-up are all working as one

“Sometimes you have to go back down to the bottom to move up again, and I’m really positive.

“Certainly the first team has lots of players who have come through the youth teams – I think that’s the way it should be.

“In years gone by, when Minehead were very successful, there were very few local connections – say in the 1970s, when a lot of the players were coming from much further away.

“There wasn’t the immediate connection to the local community, whereas now I think that is the case.”

Burnett, having worked for Fifa from 2001 to 2010, is also optimistic for the future of the game.

“There’s so much that can be done and so much that can be changed,” he said.

“We see so many sad events on the pitch, and racism has been particularly prominent in the last few months, but I am still positive.

“Football has so much potential to be such a positive thing, but some of the values are being compromised – that makes me really sad.

“I want to make a difference, and it might be a very small one but I’m really keen to do that.”

He sees a gradual change in the philosophy at the FA, and added: “Internationally I’m really hopeful that things will, slowly, begin to change.

“Within Fifa the culture has changed significantly in the last four or five years.

“There’s still a lot more work to be done, without question, but I do get the sense of there being some positive change coming.”

So what is Burnett looking to do, to make a difference?

“What I want to do now is go and gain positions on boards; I was an observer at the Somerset FA for several months, and I will hopefully be going out to observe meetings of other county FAs.

“I have [also] made approaches to other sports; I think there’s lots to be learned and lots of shared knowledge and best practice that can be picked up from other sports.

“Football obviously has lots of positive things, and in many ways is ahead of other sports, but in other areas there is some learning [to do].

“In preparing for the [On the Board] course, I wrote that in 10 years’ time I’d like to hold a role in an international federation again – not necessarily as I was before, as an employee for nine years, but as an elected or appointed official, so a board or committee member on an international federation.

“That’s the ultimate goal, but it’s something I need to work towards, it won’t happen overnight.”