Paul Fletcher (footballer)

Paul John Fletcher MBE (born 13 January 1951) is a retired English professional footballer who played as a striker. He was formerly the chief executive of Burnley.

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 u23 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 'teamsheet to balancesheet'. His commercial career in Football began at the infamous, Colne Dynamoes FC in the late 1980s. 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. 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 of Arena Coventry Limited to head-up the construction and delivery of the proposed £64 million Ricoh Arena in Coventry, which is destined to become one of the countries largest sports and leisure venues. This includes a 32,000 seater stadium for Coventry City FC, the largest Casino in the UK, 2 Hotels, Exhibition centre, Health & fitness Club and wide range of community facilities.

On 1 January 2006 he was invited to join the Board of Coventry City Football Club as Managing Director. In October 2007 following a 9 month period of negotiations with various parties,Paul resigned in protest of the stadium's owners, Arena Coventry Limited, for their refusal to accept a purchase proposal from an American consortium for both the Ricoh Arena and Coventry City FC. Two months later Paul was invited to take up a position as Chief Executive at Burnley Football Club.

In May 2009 whilst under Paul's stewardship as CEO, Burnley were promoted into the Barclays Premier League for the first time in 34 years. In late 2011 he resigned this position to take up a new role as Managing Director of UCFB (University & College of Football Business) located at Turf Moor Stadium. In 2011 UCFB won a FA Football Awards 'Most innovative use of a football stadium on non-matchdays." In February 2013 UCFB announced its second campus in partnership with WembleyStadium.

He still lives with his wife and family in the 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.

External links

• Paul Fletcher profile at the Post-War Players Database
• Paul Fletcher's website
• Paul Fletcher profile at clarets-mad.co.uk