Association affiliates should bear that in mind when they cast their votes in the election for president on Monday.

That is the view of two former BFA presidents Charlie Marshall and Donald Dane.

Both Dane, now an honorary vice-president of the BFA, and Marshall, declined to say whether they would prefer to see present incumbent Neville Tyrrell or challenger Mark Trott win the vote at the AGM.

But Dane, who occupied soccer's top post between 1986 and 1991, was happy to talk about what ingredients he believed were needed to make a successful BFA president, including a talent for organisation, time, experience of playing the game and quality helpers.

"Firstly, a leader is only as good as the people around him,'' said Dane.

"If Mark is going to get in, he will need to take his people with him and if Neville stays in, then he has to present the people he would want around him.

"I would hope they make these decisions about which people they want before the AGM.'' Marshall expressed similar sentiments. "Whoever takes the job, he has got to have good people around him,'' said Marshall, who took over from Dane and was president during the early '90s.

"The BFA has got to be run more professionally if we are to advance in football. Football is a business and we have to start running it like a business or we will be throwing money away and wasting talent.'' Drawing from his five years' experience of the hot seat, Dane added: "You need good organisational skills and because the job is such a big one, you need to have time.

"I was principal of a high school when I was doing the job and I finished at 3.30, so I had time.

"Then I believe you have to know the game and where you want to go with the sport and you have to remember that you are there for the players, first and foremost. I just think you need to have played the game and understand the needs of the players.'' Dane said any BFA president would need to put aside club loyalties. He coached Devonshire Colts before becoming BFA president.

"When I became president, Colts were no longer my team,'' said Dane. "My teams were the national teams. That's the way it had to be.'' Marshall felt the BFA constitution allowed affiliates to interfere too much with what he felt was the executive's role -- the running of the association and decision-making.

"I think the executive should be voted in for five years and when that has been done, they be left to do the job they have been given,'' said Marshall.

And he believed that any future BFA president should not underestimate how much they could be helped by the media.