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"I wish there were more Jimmy Hills in the world" - An influential figure remembered

On Saturday, one of the most influential figures in English football passed away at the age of 87...



"I wish there were more Ji...
Soccer

"I wish there were more Jimmy Hills in the world" - An influential figure remembered

On Saturday, one of the most influential figures in English football passed away at the age of 87.

Jimmy Hill was involved in almost every facet of the game from being a player and then manager to president of the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) and presenting Match of The Day.

London Evening Standard football writer and biographer Patrick Barclay, who knew Hill, joined us on Off The Ball to assess his life and times and he remembered him as "one of the great enthusiasts".

"It struck me that a lot of achievers these days have got a nasty edge to them. There's a lot of young business men who feel that they have to dominate people by displays of power. Jimmy never dominated anybody in my experience except by enthusiasm and there's a huge difference in that. I wish there were more Jimmy Hills in the world," he said of a man, who also wrote a song for Arsenal and was even a qualified referee.

Contrasting Hill with the punditry trends of more modern times, Barclay said he was "never a pally broadcaster" as some can be today.

But more significantly, he managed to get the £20 maximum wage scrapped in January 1961, paving the way for a rise in wages and Barclay explained how Hill's understanding of the media and negotiations skills helped him to achieve that landmark feat.

He also polarised opinion at times and Barclay joked that "I'm just grateful Twitter wasn't invented when he was at his peak".

But Barclay also assessed one of the darker spots in Hill's long career when the latter defended Ron Atkinson's use of the N-word in 2004.

He concluded by saying that: "I know one thing for absolutely certain that there wasn't a discriminatory bone in his body, whether it's race or anything else". 

But in Hill's case, Barclay also said that "I think that people of a certain age always have difficulty keeping up with changes and I think that was a problem with Jim". 

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