Jim Boyce | |
---|---|
Born | [1] Belfast, Northern Ireland | March 21, 1944
Nationality | British |
James Richard Wesley Boyce [2] OBE (born 21 March 1944) is a former senior Vice-President of FIFA. [3] He was the president of Northern Ireland's football organising body, the IFA, from 1995 to 2007. [4]
Boyce is a lifelong supporter of Cliftonville F.C.; as a young lad of seven, he acted as a ballboy. He was club vice chairman from 1977 to 1988 and then chairman until 1998. He is currently Cliftonville's patron. [5]
Boyce was one of a number of FIFA officials to call for the publication of the Garcia Report into allegations of corruption surrounding Russia and Qatar's bids for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups. [6]
He described the failure not to build a national stadium at the former Maze Prison "a massive mistake". [7]
Boyce played for Ballymena Cricket Club during the 1970s. He was team captain between 1974 and 1978.
He was seriously injured by a bomb planted by republicans in the early 1970s and was off work for a year not long after his marriage to Hazel. [3]
A senior figure in insurance, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to football in Northern Ireland. [8] [9]
The Northern Ireland national football team represents Northern Ireland in men's international association football. From 1882 to 1950, all of Ireland was represented by a single side, the Ireland national football team, organised by the Irish Football Association (IFA). In 1921, the jurisdiction of the IFA was reduced to Northern Ireland following the secession of clubs in the soon-to-be Irish Free State, although its team remained the national team for all of Ireland until 1950, and used the name Ireland until the 1970s. The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) organises the separate Republic of Ireland national football team.
The Irish Football Association (IFA) is the governing body for association football in Northern Ireland. It organised the Ireland national football team from 1880 to 1950, which after 1954, became the Northern Ireland national football team.
Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club based in East Belfast, Northern Ireland, that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882 and has since won more than 130 major honours.
Linfield Football Club is a Northern Irish professional football club, based in south Belfast, which plays in the NIFL Premiership – the highest level of the Northern Ireland Football League. The fourth-oldest club on the island of Ireland, Linfield was founded in 1886 by workers at the Ulster Spinning Company's Linfield Mill. Since 1905, the club's home ground has been Windsor Park, which is also the home of the Northern Ireland national team and is the largest football stadium in Northern Ireland. They train at Midgley Park which is beside the stadium. The club's badge displays Windsor Castle, in reference to the ground's namesake.
Ards Football Club is a semi-professional, Northern Irish football club playing in NIFL Championship. The club is based in Newtownards, but plays its home matches at Clandeboye Park in Bangor, which it rents from rivals Bangor to play home games. The club colours are red and blue.
Cliftonville Football & Athletic Club is a semi-professional association football club playing in the NIFL Premiership – the top division of the Northern Ireland Football League. The club was founded in September 1879 by John McAlery in the suburb of Cliftonville in north Belfast and are the founders of football in Ireland.
Coleraine Football Club is a professional Northern Irish football club, playing in the NIFL Premiership, the highest level of the Northern Ireland Football League.
Crusaders Football Club is a semi-professional Northern Irish football club playing in the NIFL Premiership. The club, founded in 1898, is based in north Belfast and plays its home matches at Seaview.
Larne Football Club is a professional Northern Irish football club based in Larne, County Antrim, that competes in the NIFL Premiership.
Windsor Park, officially the National Football Stadium at Windsor Park after the 2015 renovation and also known as The National Stadium, and occasionally nicknamed in Irish-language media as Páirc Windsor, is a football stadium in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is the home ground of Linfield who own the land the stadium is built on, while the Irish Football Association own and operate the stadium and pay Linfield an annual rental fee for the use of the land on behalf of the Northern Ireland national football team. The stadium is usually where the Irish Cup final is played.
The Football Association of Ireland is the governing body for association football in the Republic of Ireland.
Liam Boyce is a Northern Irish professional footballer who plays as a forward for League of Ireland Premier Division club Derry City and the Northern Ireland national team.
The 2012 Setanta Sports Cup was the seventh staging of the Setanta Sports Cup, an annual association football competition featuring clubs from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. It commenced on 11 February 2012 and ended on 12 May 2012, with the final played at The Oval, Belfast.
The North Belfast derby is the name given to association football matches between Cliftonville and Crusaders who play in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The two are separated by around 1.5 miles with Cliftonville based at Solitude on Cliftonville Road and Crusaders at Seaview on the Shore Road.
Sunday football in Northern Ireland has been a controversial issue. Until 2008, the Irish Football Association (IFA) under IFA Article 27, prohibited any clubs affiliated with them from playing association football matches on Sunday. The ban initially came from various government legislation, both local and national. Northern Ireland's Protestant Christian majority's observance of Sunday as the Sabbath, was also a major factor which amounted to a continuance of the observance of tradition for a lot longer than in the rest of the UK. It was also a way to combat a perceived encroachment on their culture by Catholics. Since the abolition of the ban, teams can play matches on Sunday if they have mutual agreement, although some teams such as Linfield have club rules against such games.
The 2015–16 NIFL Premiership was the 8th season of the NIFL Premiership, the highest level of league football in Northern Ireland, the 115th season of Irish league football overall, and the 3rd season of the league operating as part of the Northern Ireland Football League.
William Stewart Hillis was a Scottish physician who held a professorship in cardiology and exercise medicine. He was doctor for the Scotland national football team for 228 full international matches, part of his involvement with football that spanned more than 40 year during his medical career. He was vice-chairman of the UEFA medical committee and medical advisor to FIFA.
Sean Ryan Moore is an Irish footballer who plays for West Ham United, as a winger and full back.
Cliftonville Ladies Football Club is a women's association football club from Belfast, Northern Ireland. The club is the women's team of Cliftonville, and plays in the Women's Premiership, the top tier women's football league of Irish League.
Michael Newberry was an English professional footballer who played as a defender. He began his career at Newcastle United, before spells in Iceland with Víkingur Ólafsvík and in Northern Ireland with Linfield and Cliftonville. Born in England, he represented Northern Ireland internationally at youth level. He could operate as a centre-back or full-back.