LONDON - SIR Trevor Brooking's position as England's director of football development could be in doubt over his comments that the country's club academies are not good enough.

Brooking, a former England player who has been in his position with the Football Association since 2003, was criticised by Football League chairman Brian Mawhinney on Thursday for articulating his frustration over the slow pace of player development.

Brooking this week said Premier League clubs concentrated on hiring young foreign players and questioned the quality of work by the lower-tier Football League teams, but the response by one of FA chairman David Triesman's key allies could seem to jeopardise his future.

'The scatter-gun approach of his criticism is seriously starting to undermine our confidence in him,' Mawhinney said in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation's Radio Five.

'Sir Trevor has been banging on about this for 2 1/2 years. The Football League is running out of patience with him.

'There has been a huge development in commitment to youth development over the last couple of years, most of it financed by Football League clubs. I wouldn't want anyone listening to Trevor to think this was just a paralysed situation.'

England manager Fabio Capello has lamented the fact that he has such a small number of eligible players to choose from when selection his squads, but Mawhinney said Brooking must share responsibility for that.

'He's been in the job five years,' Mawhinney said. 'What's been happening over the last five years in this subject? He's critical of coaching in the Football League but who's responsible for coaching in this country?

'If the debate is about the inadequacies of coaching it is perfectly legitimate for people to say it's primarily an FA responsibility so let's ask some searching questions of those in the FA.' -- AP