As Mike Foster stands down as the chair of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited, the referees organisation, figures from around the game have paid tribute to someone who has dedicated himself to football administration for a remarkable 50 years.
Foster was playing semi-professional football in the North West when, in 1973, shortly after leaving school, he applied for a job at the Football League, then based in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire.
He was unsuccessful for the role he interviewed for, but the management at the Football League felt they could not let someone of his enthusiasm go, and so found a role for him in general administrative duties.
His talent meant he quickly progressed through the ranks of the Football League to become head of player registrations and assistant secretary to David Dent. He helped to create and operate the pioneering “Transfer Tribunal”, as deals between clubs became more of a major event.
Foster was also involved in the creation in 1986 of the first “Football in the Community” projects along with the Professional Football Association (PFA), which aimed to provide employment and training for the unemployed, promote close links between professional clubs and the community and involve minority ethnic groups in social and recreational activities.
The Premier League’s first employee
In the early 1990s, when the formation of the Premier League was progressing, the first hire that the League’s Chief Executive designate Rick Parry made was Foster as General Secretary. The then Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein explains why: “Mike is definitely one of the most reliable, knowledgeable and able administrators I've met in football with integrity at the soul of it. I cannot speak highly enough of him as an administrator and as a person. His knowledge of football is vast and his views are always well considered. He’s simply a class act.
“As one of the founder members of the Premier League, I remember saying to Rick Parry, the CEO designate in the early days prior to the formation that the first person to recruit is Mike Foster.”
Working with a skeleton team and to short deadlines to the start of the competition Foster helped create a governance structure and a rulebook in its entirety.
“He was instrumental in working with Rick to put the rules and the regulations for the new competition in place in a short space of time.
"We knew he would do a thoroughly professional job,” Dein adds.
Foster also played a vital role in helping Dein convince the other Premier League clubs of the benefits of having players’ names and exclusive numbers on the back of their shirts.
“One incident I remember well was when he helped me to sell the idea of having players’ names on the back of shirts in those early days,” Dein says. “Back then, players’ shirts were all numbered 1-11 with no names.
“Thanks to Mike’s help, he got me shirts with ‘Shearer 9’ from Blackburn, and ‘Giggs 11’ from Manchester Utd. I procured ‘Adams 6’ from Arsenal! We displayed them at a club meeting and despite some initial reservations it was passed.”
Dein adds: “I wish Mike every success in whatever challenge is ahead of him. Football owes him a huge debt for his contribution to the game we all love.”
In 1997, Foster joined the board of trustees for Kick It Out, the organisation set up in 1993 to kick racism out of football. During his first year of tenure, Kick It Out expanded to tackle discrimination in all its forms: racism; sexism, homophobia; and transphobia.
Over 10 years, Foster worked with Piarra Power, Sir Herman Ouseley and others as Kick it Out began to be heard and made headway in the racism and diversity debate surrounding football.
The influence Foster had continues today in the education programmes that Kick It Out runs for Academy players, parents and for fans.
Stepping up to help out
Foster preferred to operate out of the limelight, but in 1999, with the League having lost its Chief Executive and Chairman, he stepped up to assume the role of acting Chief Executive for six months while a search for a permanent candidate was made.
That permanent Chief Executive was Richard Scudamore, also hired from the Football League, where he had been chief executive.
“When I joined the Football League we had our own ‘Mike’, David Dent: steeped in common sense, knowledge, experience and deep-rooted love of football,” says Scudamore. “I remember first meeting Mike and thinking, ‘Thank goodness that the Premier League has a David Dent too.’
“Quite simply he did everything that most people think running a football league is all about: fixtures, player registrations, rules, regulations. He took so much of the football stuff off my plate and allowed me to concentrate on other things: strategy, media rights, regulatory challenges, and club cohesion.”
Scudamore highlights Foster’s key qualities as “calm under pressure, principled, knowledge and grasp of precedence”.
He adds: “Most of our conversations started with, 'Mike, when this happened before what did we do and why?’ He needed no notes and carried most of his responses in his head, thereby enabling us to move swiftly and with confidence.”
With Scudamore in place, Foster was able to return to his duties as General Secretary, which included the introduction of the Match Delegate system for the 2003/04 season.
With greater scrutiny of refereeing decisions by TV companies equipped with better technology for slow-motion replays, the system of using ex-players and managers reporting on refereeing performances at every match won unanimous approval from players, managers, clubs, and fan and remains in place to this day.
Other innovations Foster helped to introduce were medical protocols at Premier League matches after Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech suffered serious head injury at Reading in 2006, and the Premier League Match Centre, based at Stockley Park.
“He developed the ‘post Petr Cech’ head injury medical protocols and support regulations that subsequently helped save Fabrice Muamba’s and Tom Lockyer’s lives,” says Scudamore.
“And long before VAR, the Premier League Match Centre was an inspired idea that enabled there to be a real-time live grasp on what was occurring across the entire fixture calendar.
“No more ‘Dubious Goals’ Committees, deciding days later. It helped bring co-ordinated kick-off times to assist global broadcast distribution. It was a hub that took the great British export that the Premier League is to the world.”
'Widely respected by clubs'
The Premier League’s Chief Football Officer Tony Scholes dealt with Foster while he was chief executive at Stoke City.
“In my eight years as CEO at Stoke while they were in the Premier League, Mike was someone, and still is someone, who is widely respected by all of the clubs,” says Scholes.
“He always had a fair and even-handed response to any issues that you raised with him and, with Mike, there was never any sense of bias or agenda in in his response to his response to issues.”
“As everyone says, he has integrity, fairness, and a deep love of the game, and it is the latter that's probably the thing that guides everything else.
“It's clear when you're talking to Mike that not only is he incredibly knowledgeable about the game, but that deep love of the game, twinned with his knowledge of the rules and regulations, means he is able to consider the unintended consequences of all decisions.
“The Premier League is known throughout the world for its competitive nature, and that is delivered by the rule book that he created, which is designed to balance the needs of an objectives of big clubs and the small clubs.
“The Premier League values of now reflect to a large degree the values of integrity and fair competition that Mike instilled in it in day one in producing the rulebook.
“So while Richard Scudamore was busy successfully creating a media and commercial strategy that has helped to make the league one of the wealthiest in the world, Mike was the steady administrative hand on the football competition itself, instilling the values of fairness and integrity.”
“Mike’s role in supporting Scudamore in creating the successful Premier League model cannot be overstated.”
Becoming Director of Football
In 2013, after 21 years as General Secretary, Foster became the Premier League’s Director of Football, where his responsibilities shifted towards the league's operations and the management of matches.
He also took on the role of the League's representative for PGMOL, and chaired the Premier League's Medical Care Scheme, which played a crucial role in providing medical care to players registered with clubs in both the Premier League and Football League.
He also led the introduction of the Goal Decision System, the Premier League’s goalline technology.
In 2017, Foster took the bold move to become Non-Executive Chairman of PGMOL and has played a major part in its transformation.
Working with then managing director Mike Riley and the organisation’s stakeholders, the Premier League, FA and EFL, Foster oversaw the huge task of introducing Video Assistant Referees (VAR) in the 2019/20 season.
Howard Webb, Chief Refereeing Officer at PGMOL, said: “Mike is someone who has always had football in his heart, from a young boy growing up to the current day, with that passion and love for the game clear to all those who have met and worked with him.
“Anyone who has been in the game for the sustained period of time that Mike has cultivates a multitude of qualities. Knowledge, judgement, honesty and integrity are just some that he possesses – all of which have contributed to him deservedly earning a strong reputation in football.
“He’s always been a source of wise counsel and advice for me as part of his positive impact on the world of refereeing – something I know everyone within PGMOL very much appreciates. His contribution to an ever-evolving game is something which shouldn’t be underestimated and I would like to thank him and wish him all the best very for the future.”
Paying tribute to Foster, Premier League Chief Executive, Richard Masters said: “Mike has had a remarkable career at the Premier League having started as the ‘first employee’ at the organisation back in 1992.
“He joined us from the EFL and since his arrival made a huge contribution to establishing and growing the Premier League.
“As the League’s first General Secretary he played a vital role creating the governance structure and competition rulebook. Among the many achievements in his time here, he was the driving force behind goalline technology, the Match Delegate system and the creation of the Premier League Match Centre function which have transformed how we operate on matchdays.
“Mike also recruited Ged Roddy to head up the Elite Player Performance Plan that revolutionised our academy system. All these key areas are now totally indispensable.
“Beyond his hard work, diligence, knowledge and judgment, Mike's most notable characteristics are his honesty and integrity. He is straightforward and practical. He was respected by the clubs for this reason.
“Mike was a very good player in his own right having played semi-professional football alongside working at the Football League. He is your archetypal 'football man’. He loved to watch football too and would be an ever-present at major finals with his wife Anne.
“Mike left the Premier League as Director of Football to become the Chair of PGMOL in 2017 where he has used his four-decade-long experience in the professional game to make a profound impact on the organisation.
“He has had a distinguished career in sport administration that spans 50 years at the very top of our national game. Mike has a well-earned reputation for putting the good of the sport above all else, with an unwavering focus on fairness and integrity.
“I would like to thank him for everything that he has done for both the Premier League and PGMOL since joining us over 30 years ago.”