Bernard’s road from Latics to Wembley

STILL at his desk . . . Bernard Halford Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium

MARTYN MEETS... Manchester City life president BERNARD HALFORD
FEW people deserve the adjective “legend” in sporting terms.

But one who certainly does is a Failsworth bloke who describes himself as a “rejected” rugby league player who went on to enjoy the “best job in the world”.

At 72, Bernard Halford is still enjoying life at Manchester City — where he is life president — the mega-rich Premier League football club he supported as a boy with his uncle Harry (on the alternative weekends he wasn’t watching Oldham Athletic with his father, Harold).

Bernard Halford is not so much loved at City as revered. So much so that when City won the FA Cup in 2011 by beating Stoke 1-0, Bernard led the team and coaching staff up the steps at Wembley to receive the world’s most iconic, famous and recognisable knockout trophy.

It was a singular honour for a singular man, and reflects the esteem in which he is deservedly held not only at the Etihad Stadium but also across the sporting spectrum.

He is restless, full of energy, brimming with enthusiasm for all things sport and has no intention of retiring. He will be 73 in a few days but you wouldn’t guess it, given his demanding schedule inside and outside his beloved club.

I have got to know Bernard through mutual friends over the years, so getting an appointment for an interview wasn’t too difficult. But finding the time to talk to him about his remarkable life and times was the challenge: everyone wants his time.

We chatted in the refectory at the Etihad admin centre, where Bernard still has a desk he occupies every working day. “I don’t stay all day anymore; I try to get away about two o’ clock,” he confided.

During our chat we were interrupted a few times, once by Mike Summerbee, the former City winger who is now a club ambassador.

The pair were arranging a bowls match — Bernard is a former crown green county player — against another couple of City big names.

Bernard has an encyclopaedic knowledge of all things City from the day he walked through the door at Maine Road in 1972. There was a story behind his appointment, which I’ll come to later - promise, since it bears repeating and concerns the very fabric of Oldham Athletic - which might not be the club we know today but for a selfless act by Mr Halford.

Bernard’s knowledge and power of recollection are hypnotic; with every sentence there is a captivating story. But this is Bernard Halford, Mr Manchester City, and his time is precious because he is in demand.

Yet I have never once heard him raise his voice or look irritated or get even mildly angry. Here is a man with time for everyone - just not very much!

Bernard has worked in sport for seven decades, having joined Oldham Athletic as assistant secretary to Frank Buckley as an 18 year old.

He could have been a journalist with the Chron, but when offered a job as a 15 year old he refused, to spend another year at school getting some qualifications.

Instead the teenage Bernard became office junior at Malta Mill in Mills Hill; two years later he became assistant secretary at Manor Mill in Chadderton.

He had taught himself to type and do shorthand and this got him a job as assistant secretary to the legendary Buckley at Boundary Park.

Bernard was in his element, having been taken to Athletic games since the age of six; heading to Maine Road with uncle Harry when Latics were playing away.

He had grown up in Chadderton, playing football, but his early sporting years were spent playing rugby league and he turned out once for Oldham’s A team: “I wanted to be a professional at Watersheddings but I wasn’t taken on.

“I had played on the wing for Shawside and Hartford Youth and I aspired to being a professional but Bert Summerscales, the secretary, called me into his office and said: ‘We play Wigan on Saturday and if Billy Boston was to get hold of you he would snap you in half’. And with that my career in rugby was over.”

Bernard has retained his love of rugby league - he lists being chairman of the Roughyeds’ former players’ association, as well as treasurer and social organiser, among his many duties away from City.

But his life became steeped in football once he stepped through the doors to work at Boundary Park. He has a myriad of stories about his 13 years at the club, from when Bobby Johnstone signed for the Latics to when Ken Bates bought Oldham, changed the club colours, sacked all but two people and threatened to close the place...

The story about Johnstone, a Scottish footballer of amazing talents. is worth telling: “He had an incredible effect on Oldham. Attendances went up from 3,000 to 18,000. The players were on £25 a week maximum wage plus £4 for a win and £2 for a draw.”

Bernard’s his life was to change forever when the mercurial Ken Bates bought the club in 1965.

“There was a board meeting on the Friday night and I wasn’t invited. But the next morning Ken marched into the office, threw me the keys to the ground and told me I was in charge.

“He had sacked everyone at the club except the players and the groundsman.”

Things began to come to light that cannot be written about here, but Bernard’s career was most definitely in the ascendancy.

He was to make a name for himself as a football administrator and two men from City, the irrepressible Malcolm Allison and Manchester broadcaster Paul Docherty, came calling.

And here’s the story: “They offered me the job as secretary of Manchester City.”

Bernard accepted the job but it was four years before he took up the post and went on to enjoy what he describes as the best job in football.

Find out why next week...