“If in doubt, copy Watford.” Not my words, nor of anyone at the Club. They were the words of The Times newspaper in the 1980s when offering a 20-point guide on the future of professional football clubs in England.
The reason that Watford had become a recommended reference for other clubs back then was due to the pioneering work of Graham Taylor OBE. That work was based on his desire that the Club should be one of the focal points of the community in which it operated and drew the lion’s share of its support. It was a philosophy he had first employed at his previous club, Lincoln City, where he is also very fondly remembered.
To make it an everyday reality, Graham had a clause inserted in player contracts committing them to ambassadorial roles for the Club. It saw players attending a range of events and activities the Club hosted and supported in and around Watford. In effect, it personalised the Club and its players, bringing them into direct contact with supporters and local people generally.
Fast forward several years and many other clubs did indeed ‘copy Watford’ to the point where the then Football League and PFA (Professional Footballers’ Association) formalised the club/community links into0 a national organisation called ‘Football In The Community.’ Now every professional club had someone co-ordinating outreach programmes, whether that was simply player appearances, or running club-branded holiday football courses for children.
The surface had been well and truly scratched and before long these Football In The Community operations evolved to the point where clubs – Watford among them – started to form their own charitable foundations to run these activities and many, many more.
I have been privileged to be part of this evolution since 1984 and have to admit having a lump in my throat when I attended the Trust’s staff day in early January at the Meriden Centre – a facility now run by the Trust. To see the growth of the Club’s community programmes from just a couple of people to being asked to speak to a room of some 60+ staff is nothing short of astonishing – as is the range of programmes the Trust now runs, and the facilities it operates.
But my main message to the current Trust staff that day was the same one Graham Taylor instilled in me back in the 1980s – ‘Our job, when it comes time to move on, is to leave the organisation in a better state than we found it.’
That will apply as much in 30 years’ time as it does today, but for now it’s time for a brief pause to reflect on how far we’ve come in a relatively short space of time. Then, in keeping with Graham Taylor’s legacy, pause time will be over and it’ll be time to get on the front foot again – setting new benchmarks and improving individual lives by harnessing the positive power of football to create a better today and a lasting tomorrow.
