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Alan Waterworth, JP

Chairman of Everton Football Club, August 1973 to August 1976

Sir John Moores

At age 41,when he assumed the role of Everton Chairman, Alan Waterworth already had an impressive record of public service as a Liverpool Justice of the Peace, Chairman of the Merseyside Youth Association and a member of the Skelmersdale New Town Corporation. He became one of the youngest chairmen of a First Division club and was thrust even more into the public limelight as head of Everton Football Club. 

Educated at Mostyn House, Uppingham and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took a Master of Arts degree in History, his sporting interests in his younger days were as a rugby player. He was in his college team and played for Liverpool on vacation. 

His interest in Everton developed when he became associated with Mr John Moores in youth work on Merseyside. As, initially, chairman of Florence Institute, then chairman of the Liverpool Boys' Association, and eventually the Youth Association, it was his job to use the £140,000 which Mr Moores gave to the association. 

He told the Liverpool Echo: "I got to know Mr Moores well during that time and it was he who interested me in becoming an Everton director. Since then, all the members of my family have become football fans except the eldest boy, Richard, who is a staunch Liverpool supporter." 

He accepted that being a more public figure was part and parcel of being Everton Chairman, even though he saw his job as being in the background of the club's affairs. At least that is what he wanted, but he appreciated that it cannot always be so. 

 

"l'm a lucky man to become Everton chairman at this stage in the club's history. I'm a comparatively young man to become a chairman and with a new young manager, a new young secretary, and a young promotions manager as head of the three sections of the club's activities, I believe it is the start of a new Everton era. 

"Without looking back too much, all of us at Everton are conscious that things have gone wrong in the past few years. Everton have been regarded more as a business than as a club., and that is the first thing I would like to change. 

"We want to be regarded as a happy club, a family club, and everyone connected with the club. from the directors through all members of the staff, want to achieve this as soon as possible. 

 

"The directors can do a lot to help to create a good atmosphere. Mr Bingham will be a great impetus to the players and if he can be as successful as Mr Catterick was, we will be happy. 

 

"I see the directors' job as being, mainly, one of encouragement and help to the staff. to create a good atmosphere and to see that. it spreads through the club. There may come a tine when the whip has to be cracked at Board level and I'm not afraid to wield that if necessary. 

"We have to boost morale throughout the club. Mr Bingham is already doing that with the players; the directors will encourage this all the way. 

 

"The difference between success and failure at the top level is very small. The quality of players in the top clubs is about the same, but it is the willingness to pull together, to give that bit extra, which can give one club success against another club's failure. 

 

"As chairman, I intend to do all I can to create this feeling, to improve the club's image, and I'm sure I have the backing of everyone in the club to do just that." 

 

Alan Waterworth is a big man in every sense. His pleasant personality will enable him to fulfil those duties of hospitality so necessary for a director and especially a chairman. But he knows what he wants and behind the outwardly easy exterior lies a firmness of character which is also necessary in his new position.

 

 On stepping down as chairman in August 1976, Mr Waterworth said: "This was a decision made when I took office 3 years ago and is not related to what has been a disappointing season."

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