Commentator becomes 50th icon
A STATUE of manager and broadcaster Jimmy Hill, being unveiled tomorrow at Coventry City’s ground, will be the UK’s 50th monument recognising football icons, according to a new study by a Yorkshire academic.
Dr Chris Stride from Sheffield University found that a third of the statues have been funded by football fans while almost half are paid for by the clubs involved.
Almost three-quarters of the statues are of former players while one-in-five depict managers and just seven per cent are of football club chairmen. Dr Stride also found that fan-organised statue projects have been inspired by their team moving to a new ground, which is often “bland in appearance and lacking the homely atmosphere of their previous stadium”.
The research investigated why there had been a big increase in the erection of footballing statues in the past 20 years.