Jimmy Hill Biography

Starting his playing career at Brentford in 1949, Jimmy moved to Fulham in 1953, playing over 300 games for the club up to 1961, many in the top flight.

In this period, as Chairman of the PFA (1957-61), he led the successful campaign to lift the £20 maximum wage. Hill insisted the England squad would strike if the wage ceiling was not lifted. The Ministry of Labour and the Football League eventually relented.

He then became manager of Coventry City, where he brought them from the bottom of the third division into the first division, before moving into television. He returned to the club in 1975, as Managing Director, before becoming Chairman.

He started his career in broadcasting when he was appointed as Head of Sport at London Weekend Television from 1967-72. He then became Deputy Controller of Programmes for a year in 1972, before joining BBC Television as presenter for 'Match of The Day', making over six hundred appearances on the show.

As a presenter or analyst, he has worked on every World Cup since 1966 and every European Championship since 1968.

He returned to Fulham as Chairman in 1987, steering the club away from a merger with Queens Park Rangers and successfully leading them through a critical period in their history.

He worked on the BBC Sports Personality of the Year during the 1970s and became a sporting personality himself, providing analysis and commentary on football throughout the 1980s and 90s.

He left the BBC in 1999, and joined Sky Sports from at the start of the 1998-99 season, to present 'The Last Word', and then 'Jimmy Hill's Sunday Supplement'.

In 1999, he was presented with a Lifetime Achievement award by the Royal Television Society. He received the Professional Footballers Association Merit Award in 2001, and is now also Jimmy Hill, OBE.