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A major row has been going on within the FA over the professional game's management of its coaching programmes.

And this row is proving immensely damaging to .

It astonished me to learn that the Technical Control Board, which is charged with overseeing coaching and player development and is meant to be the highest technical body in the FA, has met only once in the last two years. And that meeting took place more a year ago in November 2006.

Naturally, there is much concern in Soho Square.

An insider told me that one FA councillor who asked why no meetings had taken place was fobbed off with a reply that clearly didn't address the issue.

The man in the street may think the Technical Control Board would be headed by , the FA's director of development, but he is not even a member.

He can attend meetings but, because the structure of the FA means only elected members can join a committee, that is all he can do.

It's a crazy situation.

So this all-important body, so essential to the health of the game, is headed by Robert Coar, who used to be chairman of Blackburn Rovers but is now merely a director of the Premier League club.

The other members are elected FA officials and include David Richards, chairman of the Premier League, Terry Robinson of Sheffield United, Bernard Halford of the Manchester FA, Chris Saunders, who represents grass-roots football, and Noel White, head of the FA's International Committee and a former director of Liverpool.

Insiders have told me that Brooking is concerned the FA is not able to supervise how the professional game runs its coaching programmes.

This is despite the fact that the FA funds them.

While the Premier League spends some £4m of its own cash on coaching players, the Football League, less well off financially, has had to go to the FA for money.

Some 16 months ago, the FA board agreed to provide the Football League with just under £6m for its academies.

Brooking, not surprisingly, would quite like the FA to make sure the money goes towards helping nurture England players of the future. So far, he has been unable to get the FA to exercise such control.

Matters have not been helped by the fact that Brooking's relations with the people who run the professional game, the likes of Football League chairman , are less than cordial to put it mildly.

This has also had an impact on Brooking's dealings with Brian Barwick, the FA's chief executive.

Although there have been reports suggesting , I am told the real problem is that Brooking does not believe Barwick has done enough to assert his authority when dealing with the FA's board members.

The FA's inability to exercise its authority is seen as a major factor in England's decline. But a decision to develop Burton, to which Brooking is so committed, will be a first step in trying to arrest the decline.

The larger question of how the FA supervises its coaching programmes and exerts its authority over the professional game will really decide whether England will get back to the top of the league of nations.

Update: 15:44, 20/12/07: The FA have just confirmed at Burton will go ahead.