Roy Hodgson is not in the running for Norwich City's new sporting director role.

The Canaries' top brass is at an 'advanced stage' in recruiting a sporting director, but Hodgson is not on that shortlist.

Canaries' chairman Ed Balls confirmed prior to the Championship home game against Barnsley on Saturday afternoon Hodgson had been consulted by majority shareholders Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones as City's board look to make two football key appointments.

The club announced earlier in the day a new model that includes a sporting director and a separate head coach, working in tandem with Steve Stone as the new managing director.

'Roy is a great coach with a great track record and someone with huge experience,' said Balls. 'Michael and Delia know him very well and we have talked to a lot of people in the game, both inside and outside. Will Delia and Michael have spoken to Roy? Of course they will have done. They will talk to people who they respect. He is not in any way different to the five or 10 people we have spoken to during this process in the past few weeks. He is not a candidate for the sporting director. He has not played any formal role. He is not part of the consultative process.

'Roy is an old friend of Michael and Delia and I have known him for years as well. Roy is exactly the type of person you would expect us to consult but as of today there have been no interviews or even a list of candidates for the head coach role. On the sporting director side we are quite a long way down the track but that is not a job we have considered Roy.

'The head coach appointment is tied into the sporting director appointment. You want a head coach who can inspire and motivate the first team but as part of the overall football strategy. That is why if we can get the sporting director appointment done first it is the better way around.

'We have been thinking hard for a number of weeks about who is out there in the sporting director role. Since last weekend we have had a deluge of people wanting the job, or agents and senior figures touting people for both jobs. We are going to move as quickly as we can. We have not made a decision and got it down to one candidate but we are a long way down the road. We have had a lot of discussions and people have been met. We are not at the final interview stage.'