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Obituary : David Taylor [Scotsman, The (Scotland)]
[June 26, 2014]

Obituary : David Taylor [Scotsman, The (Scotland)]


(Scotsman, The (Scotland) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) David Taylor, solicitor and football administrator. Born: 15 March, 1954, in Forfar. Died: 24 June, 2014, in Glasgow, aged 60.The death of David Taylor has robbed Scottish football of a doughty defender at the upper levels of authority in the game. Having become the chief executive of the Scottish Football Association (SFA), Taylor, a solicitor by profession, moved seven years ago into the highest administrative post in European football as general secretary of Uefa.It was from there that this lifelong fan of Scotland's national team sounded well-heeded warnings against Scottish participation in a footballing Team GB at the London Olympics, fearing that it might lead to a long-rumoured attempt to scrap the separate identities of the four Home Nations.For that alone, he deserves the Tartan Army's respects and gratitude, but he did so much more for Scottish football, with some of his ideas and innovations still to be fully realised. It is safe to say the current streamlined SFA was largely the result of his efforts, especially in 2003 and 2004 when the entire organisation of the Association, with its myriad committees, was overhauled and modernised.Born in Forfar, Taylor always credited his father with instilling in him a lifelong love of football. He was educated at Dundee High School, best known as a rugby-playing establishment, before going on to study law at Edinburgh University.During the completion of his legal apprenticeship and while in legal practice, Taylor added an MSc in economics and an MBA to his CV. These would prove crucial to his recruitment by Scottish Enterprise in 1985 where he held a number of positions before becoming the first director of Scottish Trade International, the organisation set up to promote Scottish business worldwide.He would later state that this job gave him the appetite for international business relations that would become so important in latter years.Football remained his abiding sporting passion as his career developed, and he played in the junior ranks with Forfar East End before moving to Glasgow and joining Westerlands AFC with whom he won the West of Scotland Amateur Cup in 1982.He remained a member and benefactor to the club. He would later earn a coaching badge from the SFA, while he always followed Scotland, travelling as a supporter to five World Cups.The chance to combine business with his hobby came in 1999 with the resignation amid some controversy of the late Jim Farry, the SFA chief executive. While Farry could be abrasive on occasion, Taylor brought his qualities of coolheadedness and considerable personal charm to bear on the problems facing the SFA. It also caused him no little pleasure to be the supporter who really did get to be the man in charge of the national team organisation.More importantly, he had ideas to modernise the way in which the sport was being run in Scotland. He was instrumental in the SFA taking over Hampden Park, and fronted the campaign to improve youth football coaching. Then he began the long process of transforming the SFA into a more outward- looking and professional body, attacking its "insular bureaucracy" - some would say that work is ongoing.Taylor also took to the media to face down Scotland's two biggest clubs over their aims to move to the English leagues - no enmity occurred as both Celtic and Rangers yesterday paid their own tributes to him - while he was also capable of a populist decision, most notably throwing his personal weight behind the moves to offer retrospective international caps to more than 80 players who had played for Scotland outwith Home Internationals but never actually been given caps.The Scotsman had campaigned passionately for the SFA to change its traditional stance on the matter, and in recognition of these promptings, Taylor personally contacted the newspaper to inform the sports editor of the welcome decision to change its rule in advance of the announcement being made.The decision led to Hibs' legendary player and manager, the late Eddie Turnbull, being presented with his cap at the age of 82 in 2006.Under Taylor's direction, the SFA's excellent organisation of the 2002 Champions League final at Hampden between Real Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen was instrumental in showing that Scotland could host showpiece finals and tournaments, which in turn led to a joint bid with Ireland to host the 2008 European Championship finals.That bid was unsuccessful, though Taylor's personal reputation grew at Uefa, where he joined the powerful control and disciplinary body. He also endured the failure of Scotland to qualify for the 2002 World Cup finals which brought about the resignation of Scotland manager Craig Brown.It was typical of Taylor's progressive thinking that he was behind the appointment of German former World Cup winner Berti Vogts as national team manager - the first non-Scot to hold the post.The appointment was not a success, however, and Vogts left after Scotland's failure to qualify for the 2004 European Championship finals and a poor start to the 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign.Walter Smith was recruited as Vogts' replacement and certainly brought about improvement, but his resignation to re-join Rangers in early 2007 dismayed Taylor, who pressed the SFA's case against the Ibrox club for compensation.That incident may have made Taylor's decision to leave the SFA somewhat easier. Legendary French footballer Michel Platini had become president of Uefa and personally sought Taylor's appointment in June 2007, as general secretary of the governing body.The two men forged a powerful partnership within world football, not least because Taylor held the view that football should be treated as special entity in European law - Platini's frequent pleas for the "specificity" of football to be recognised might well have been written by Taylor.His background in international marketing then led to his post as chief executive of the Uefa Events company and then his final position as corporate business adviser to the European governing body.In that latter capacity, Taylor had championed the Uefa plan to increase the number of teams in the European Championship finals from 16 to 24, and have the European Championship finals of 2020 take place in 13 different host nations - Scotland will bid strongly to be one of them.Taylor remained a supporter of Scotland's national side until his death, having attended last month's match against Nigeria in London.In what was an unusual political move by him, he also recently declared that he would be voting Yes in the forthcoming referendum on independence.Having suffered a heart attack in Switzerland 2011, which he survived thanks only to the presence of a defibrillator nearby, Taylor returned to work, latterly as a director of CAA Eleven, the firm which manages Uefa's commercial rights.He was on holiday in Turkey when he sustained another heart attack a fortnight ago.He was flown home to Glasgow by air ambulance, but did not recover. Taylor, who was a keen golfer, is survived by wife Cathy and their sons, James and Alan.Scotland's fans may well be asked to give a minute's applause in memory of Taylor when the national team next plays. They will respond, for they knew he was one of them.



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