Philip Carter

Sir Philip David Carter CBE (8 May 1927 - 23 April 2015) was a Scottish-born football director, life president of Everton Football Club and former director of Littlewoods.

Born in Scotland, Carter's family moved to Lancashire when he was two years old. He attended Waterloo Grammar School in Waterloo, Liverpool. He joined Littlewoods as a 21-year-old in 1948, joining the main board in 1965 and in 1976 was installed as the Managing Director by Sir John Moores. He took early retirement in 1983.

He has had three spells with Everton Football Club. His first began in July 1977 when he joined the board of directors, becoming vice-chairman to replace Sir John Moores who had resigned from the board. Two years later he was installed as Chairman.

Carter was involved with the formation of the Premier League. He along with four others were invited to dinner with ITV to discuss a break-away league that would feature the five largest clubs in the country (Arsenal, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur) more frequently than any other teams thus those five clubs would receive more money than the others. He responded favourably.

While Carter was chairman of Everton, he oversaw some of the greatest successes of their history, including the 1984 FA Cup triumph, the European Cup Winners' Cup glory of 1985, as well as two league championships (the first in 1985, the second in 1987). On 31 October 1987, he famously disowned a host of Everton fans who were making racist chants at Liverpool winger John Barnes in a First Division Merseyside derby at Goodison Park. His condemnation of the club's racist supporters ("Stay Away You Scum") made the front page of several national newspapers.

When Peter Johnson purchased the club, Carter vacated his position only to be asked to return for a second spell by Johnson's buyer Bill Kenwright in 1998 where he remained in the position for six years before opting to retire, aged 78.^[1]

In 2008, he was brought back to the board of directors for a second time by Bill Kenwright, this time because an Extraordinary General Meeting had been called and there were not enough available directors to attend (a minimum of three is needed) following the resignation of Keith Wyness. Carter has voiced his approval of Everton FC relocating out of the city of Liverpool.^[2]

He was awarded a CBE in 1982 and later a knighthood.

Death

On 23 April 2015, Carter died from natural causes following a brief illness, aged 87. ^[3]

External links

• evertonfc.com profile

References