As England struggled to overcome the Czech Republic in the FA’s showpiece home – itself completed under Barwick’s tenure - the news broke that the FA were to part company with their Chief Executive at the end of 2008.

The arrival of Lord Triesman at the FA in January had sparked debate about the future direction of the FA and its senior players but, as the football man to Triesman’s politician, you got the impression that it was here, around the game, where Barwick was happiest.

We sat and spoke about topics from the FA Cup and the grassroots game to the national side and Fabio Capello and he spoke with conviction and passion about each of them. First of all, I asked him what it was that brought the Chief Executive of the Football Association to such humble surrounds on a Saturday afternoon in August.

“Well, the Extra Preliminary Round of the FA Cup is always an interesting round to come to,” said Barwick. "So although in May I’m normally at the other Wembley up the road here, today is a good opportunity to start at the other end of it [the competition]. "I don’t imagine the two teams here have aspirations to win the tournament, but it’s the pure uniqueness of the fact that they are in the same tournament as Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and holders Portsmouth that make the FA Cup as special as it is.” So was he in there in an official capacity or as a football fan, I asked. “I’m here for two reasons. I’m a football supporter, so it’s not difficult for me to come and watch a game of football at any level. "My local is Hampton & District and I have a son who plays on a Sunday morning in the park so I go and see that as well.

"But I do absolutely believe that it’s very important that the hierarchy of the Football Association are seen to be supporting the game being played at every level. I have attended a game in August in the FA Cup every year I’ve been doing this job and I just think this is part of it.”

The publicity surrounding the early rounds of the FA Cup has certainly increased this year, with new broadcasters ITV and Setanta helping make people aware that the tournament is already underway.

“Our previous broadcasters did a fantastic job,” said Barwick, “but our new broadcasters have brought a new appetite with them and will obviously want to make their mark. Their mark is by wanting to be involved in the competition from the first kick and that’s terrific.”

“It says something about football these days that I’ve counted five cameras here today. I’m also told that, at any one stage, there were some 3,000 people watching last night’s game live online, plus the attendance was very good as well.”

So, was this evidence that the English game is in good health at all levels, I wondered. “There are 7 million people involved in football in some way, shape or form every week. It’s a phenomenal number. They reckon that people playing football surpass every other sport put together every weekend and it is played at every level.”

One issue that has been at the top of the agenda right across the football spectrum of late is that of bad behaviour. Barwick has stated on more than one occasion how important this matter is to him personally. So, did he feel the recent launch of the Respect programme had been a success?

“Yes, the reaction has been incredibly positive,” he said. “This is something that really matters to me. When you are in a job of this nature you have a responsibility, amongst all of the other things you do, to have a legacy item and mine may well be that I made people think twice about behaviour on the pitch.”

“We don’t want to cut emotion and passion out of the game. We never would. But we want better behaved players towards referees, better behaved spectators to young players and just generally a lift in standards.

“We know that somewhere probably today there will be an incident and everyone will say “well, what’s changed?” but it will be over a number of weeks or months or years. You’re changing social behaviour and it will take a while, but it’s got to start somewhere.”

“When we started it last year with pilot schemes at grassroots level we were criticised for taking the soft option of starting at the bottom but we were always going to involve the professional game.”

At this early stage of Respect, I was told by the FA that a “cross game approach is the ultimate aim” but that the focus would be on the grassroots game initially. I put this to Barwick, with the suggestion that high profile incidents involving Ashley Cole, among others, had brought forward the timetable for the professional game getting on board. “I don’t think it’s necessarily about individual incidents,” he told me. “It’s more about the fact that for the professional game - and I agree with them by the way – to change a set of objectives mid-season is unfair. From the turn of Christmas they were always going to come on board, they knew that they had a responsibility to come on board. It wasn’t a case of anything happening that made sure they did. “They were always going to do it and I was always aware of that but they were never going to do it in the middle of January or February. They were always going to do it at the start of the season when they can get all the referees and all the managers together so that everyone starts with a clean slate. That’s what was always going to happen and I’m delighted it has happened.” “There will always be incidents across a season that, quite rightly, catch a headline but anything like this has to be driven almost in spite of some incidents. There’s got to be a bigger picture because, sure as eggs is eggs, there will be incidents this year.

"Hopefully less and hopefully less extreme than last season, but the reality of it is that it is a game based on passion and emotion and, occasionally, human frailty but the big aim, the big job is to do it over a number of years.

“To raise the level of behaviour standards in the game – that message came out loud and clear from the National Game Survey that we did and, interestingly, it came ahead of a good pitch and good facilities, although people still want them”.

Such a strong attitude prevalent in the grassroots game helps explain why the general reaction to last season’s high profile incidents was so clear. People are now fed up of seeing this sort of thing and they want something to be done, which would help explain why the reaction to the recent launch of the Respect programme was so positive.

“Well, [Premier League Chief Executive] Richard Scudamore described it recently as a “tipping point” and that’s an interesting summing up of where we are now, but onwards an upwards!”

So kick-starting an improvement in behaviour across football is something that Barwick would like to his tenure to be remembered by? Whether that will prove to be the case remains to be seen, but I dare Barwick expected to be around a while longer to oversee some of that change.

What is for sure, having described his wish for Respect to be his “legacy item”, Barwick had already answered my next question, so I moved on from his hopes for his tenure to his hopes for the season ahead.

“Well we want to get off to a flyer in the World Cup qualifiers,” he told me. We know that things get real now for the England team post-Euro 2008. Obviously we were disappointed not to be involved in that but occasionally sport gives you a kick in the teeth and it did then. We’ve had to get on with it and we’ve moved the situation on. Fabio Capello has come in and has made a big difference." I had heard Barwick speak on radio that week about Capello’s determination to learn English, with the Italian taking lessons every day. “He is dedicated to it," he told me.  "I think he’s a guy that has a single focus." "He said he was going to learn the language. I spoke to him before Christmas when he was joining us and his English was broken. He was confident talking it in the privacy of an office but never felt he could sit in front of 150 journalists and make complete sense of it.”

“He’s been doing two hours a day and on any day he’s in [Soho Square], the morning is spent learning English. If you listen to him now his grasp of the language is quite phenomenal. I’m not surprised by it by the way. The guy was just always going to do it.”

You can tell from the tone of his last remark that Barwick has been impressed by then man he tried so hard to recruit. “I like the guy,” he said. “He’s got a proven track record. He’s coached some of the best players in the world and he’s won things wherever he’s gone.”

“There are no guarantees in football, but what we’ve tried to do is get one of the world’s best coaches to take our players forward. So far [before the draw with the Czechs] he’s won three and lost one but, whilst the results are important, what’s far more important was his ability to get amongst the players. We’ve benefitted from him coming here in January so he’s knows the players and what they are capable of.”

Capello himself recently made a cameo appearance in the FA’s Respect programme promotional video, suggesting that he is supportive of the FA’s schemes at all levels of the game.

“Yeah, he’s aware of everything and he takes an interest. He sees the wider picture of the Football Association and is a big supporter of it.”

The high profile appointment of Capello and the money spent on securing his services placed a large amount of pressure on Barwick as the man who appointed him. But pressure goes hand in hand with any job of this nature, it seems. Having previously worked in senior roles at the BBC and ITV earlier in his career, Barwick is obviously used to the pressure, but I was interested to find out how the two industries compared.

“I think when you do this job you have to accept the fact that it’s in the public eye, that people are passionate and emotional about the sport.  Both industries I worked in are similar, in that I’ve made plenty of television programmes that people have a view about and I’ve made plenty of decisions in football that people have a view about. I wouldn’t have it any other way.” I suggest that one of the best things about football is that everyone has an opinion on it. “And entitled to have it, I have to say," said Barwick. "For many years I’ve been doing what I’m doing now – sitting watching a game, having a view on the England team and all sorts and why not? People are entitled to have their view.”

Having covered a number of Olympic Games for the BBC, our conversation turns to Beijing and then on to London 2012. What were Barwick’s thoughts on the proposed British football team for the London games, I wondered.

“It’s inconceivable that we’ll have an Olympics over here, a final at Wembley and not have a team in it that may or may not get to that final,” he said. “Not to compete is, for us, inconceivable so whatever the other associations are doing we’ll be supporting the idea of a British team.”

With the Beijing games over the countdown to 2012 has begun in earnest but, for Barwick, another countdown is far more pressing. With less than four months until he leaves the FA his tenure will, in all likelihood, be a distant memory by the time the Olympics arrive at Wembley.

Who knows what shape the FA will be in by then, as Lord Triesman begins to steer the organisation on another path. Barwick claims to be leaving the FA “in better financial health than ever before” and, with the FA’s National Football Centre finally getting the green light under his tenure, there may be more success to look back on.

Above all this, however, if football in England in 2012 is played with more Respect right across the game, then Barwick will feel that he truly left his mark.