LMA Chairman and former FA Technical Director Howard Wilkinson has called for a radical shake-up of the country's coaching system.

Wilkinson, the last homegrown manager to have won the English league championship, guided Leeds Unitedto success in 1992, the year before the formation of the Premier League.

He believes it is about time the situation was rectified, but will require heavy investment in restructuring the sport by its governing body.

"I do not think we as a nation have ever embraced the culture of coach education," Wilkinson told Sportsweek.

"We are still having a debate as to whether coaches should be qualified or not - the leading nations in Europe have had that debate 50 years ago.

"Their federations are investing in coach education, they support the philosophy and would not dream of not perusing that because they now recognise in the modern game it is the key to developing players.

"Coaching in this country is under threat anyway because of the invasion of foreign coaches and foreign players.

"The FA is not proactive enough and their coaching structure does not deal with the problem vigorously enough.

"The current crop of [English] players are very good, but tactically we are high-bound by playing 4-4-2 and our players find it difficult to make subtle tactical adjustment during games, where in other countries it is commonplace."

Wilkinson added: "The FA should be the ones who are banging the drum. They should be out there, heads above parapet saying 'this is the way forward'.

"They should stand up and support what is good for English football."

Wilkinson believes the English talent is there, but aspiring coaches are not being offered the backing they should be from t

he authorities. "We have the quality of person and some very good coaches, but those who are outside the big arena find themselves vulnerable and part of a system which does not really support their further improvement," he said.

"Clubs lower down the leagues have seen investments in coaching and facilities cut back at a time when, really, we should be massively investing in that level."

Wilkinson called on the FA to take drastic action.

He said: "Coaching education and the development of young players are their two core responsibilities.

"They have to recognise that, positively promote and support that philosophy, both publicly and privately - and invest massively in a long-term structure.

"We seem to change courses every four or five years, a result of which is we track here and there, backwards and forwards and we never really get anywhere."