PAUL FLETCHER MBE
In 1967 aged 16, Paul Fletcher joined his home town Club Bolton
Wanderers. In 1970 he became one of the country’s most expensive
transfers when he joined Burnley Football Club for a Club record
fee. During the next ten years he made over 400 appearances, mostly
in the old First Division – now named The Premier League.
After gaining four England under 23 International caps he was
selected in Don Revie’s England squad, but a serious knee injury put
paid to a full England call up. A second serious leg injury forced
early retirement at the age of 32.
Following a sixteen-year career as a professional footballer he
has now become one of Europe’s leading Stadium experts joining a
rare breed of ex professional footballers who have successfully made
the transition from ‘team-sheet to balance-sheet’. His commercial
career in Football began at the infamous, Colne Dynamoes FC in the
late 1980’s. Since then he has had a meteoric rise starting as Chief
Executive at Huddersfield Town where, over a six year period, he
masterminded the award winning Alfred McAlpine Stadium voted the
RIBA ‘Building of the Year ‘in 1995. In 1996 he then returned to his
old Club Bolton Wanderers as Chief Executive at the new £40 million
Reebok Stadium the BCI Building of the Year in 1998. In 1999, after
two years at the Reebok, he was invited by the FA to become
Commercial Director of the new £500 million Wembley National
Stadium. To play at Wembley had been an unfulfilled lifetime
ambition, but he had now arrived by an alternative route.
After eighteen months, as costs escalated, he controversially
walked away from the project commenting that he ‘needed to spend
more time with his wife and family in the Lancashire sunshine’.
Within weeks he took up the position as Chief Executive at the £64
million Ricoh Arena Coventry, which is destined to become one of the
countries largest sports and leisure venues. On 1st January 2006 he
was invited to join the Board of Coventry City Football Club as
Managing Director. On 1st January 2008 he rejoined Burnley Football
Club in a consultancy role as Development Director responsible for
their new £30 million Business and Sports Village.
He still lives with his wife and family in the sundrenched
Rossendale valley in the heart of Lancashire close to Turf Moor
Burnley and is an active member of the George Formby Appreciation
Society. In the 2007 New Years Honours list he was awarded the MBE
for services to Football.
SAMPLE LIST OF TALKS
Fabulous After Dinner Speaker with anecdotes from his life in
football and business.
Football:
Bolton Wanderers Football Club
Burnley Football Club
Blackpool Football Club
England Under 23 International (4 caps)
Business:
Chief Executive Huddersfield Town Football Club
Chief Executive Kirkless Stadium Development Ltd
Chief Executive Bolton Wanderers FC Reebok Stadium
Commercial Director Wembley National Stadium
Commercial Adviser Birmingham National Stadium
Chief Executive Ricoh Arena Coventry
Managing Director Coventry City Football Club
Development Director Burnley Football Club
Partner StadiArena LLP