Ex SFA Boss Jim Farry Dies Aged 56

Former SFA Chief, Jim Farry Dies Aged Only 56

Former Scottish Football Association chief executive Jim Farry has died of a heart attack.

The 56 year old had his family around him when he passed away at Hairmyres Hospital, East Kilbride. Wife Elaine and children Alyson, 28 and Ewan, 26 were last night at the family home in East Kilbride in shock at Jim’s death yesterday.

Jim grew up in a tenement in Holybrook Street, Govanhill, Glasgow and went on to become a high flying football bureaucrat. The son of an East End cop, he worked as a landscape gardener, milkman and window cleaner before starting life in Scottish football administration.

He joined the SFA in 1972 as an administrative assistant and at just 24 became the youngest-ever secretary of the Scottish Football League and later the SFA’s youngest secretary.

In 1990, he became the youngest ever chief executive when he took over from Ernie Walker and went on to play a key role in a plan to revamp the National Stadium, Hampden Park.

While his predecessors had left the post after enduring years of flak, Jim thought he would take a different path. However, he was sacked for gross misconduct after a panel found him guilty of deliberately delaying the registration of Portugese player Jorge Cadete, preventing him from playing for Celtic.

Jim insisted he had done nothing wrong but Celtic chairman Fergus McCann would not let the matter drop and it finally resulted, in March 1999, in Mr. Farry being shown the door.

The high ranking official also hit the headlines after receiving death threats when criticised for poor judgment over a decision to go-ahead with Scotland’s game against Belarus in 1997 on the day of Princess Diana’s funeral.

Jack Steedman, ex-owner of Clydebank FC said Jim was “the best executive officer Scottish football has ever had.”