Jim Boyce (football administrator)
Association Football administrator from Northern Ireland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James Richard Wesley Boyce[2] OBE (born 21 March 1944) is a former senior Vice-President of FIFA.[3] He was the president of Northern Ireland's football organising body, the IFA, from 1995 to 2007.[4]
Boyce is a lifelong supporter of Cliftonville F.C.; as a young lad of seven, he acted as a ballboy. He was club vice chairman from 1977 to 1988 and then chairman until 1998. He is currently Cliftonville's patron.[5]
Boyce was one of a number of FIFA officials to call for the publication of the Garcia Report into allegations of corruption surrounding Russia and Qatar's bids for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups.[6]
He described the failure not to build a national stadium at the former Maze Prison "a massive mistake".[7]
Boyce played for Ballymena Cricket Club during the 1970s. He was team captain between 1974 and 1978.
He was seriously injured by a bomb planted by republicans in the early 1970s and was off work for a year not long after his marriage to Hazel.[3]
A senior figure in insurance, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to football in Northern Ireland.[8][9]