Top accountant becomes FA chief executive

People in accounting jobs are learning that the Football Association has appointed its former financial director Ian Horne as its chief executive.

Mr Horne, who won Accoutnancy Age's man of the year in 2007, has been heavily involved in football finance for a long time at the FA's Soho Square headquarters.

He helped to turn around the fortunes of two major projects during the last decade - the National Football Centre in Derbyshire and the £757 million rebuilding of Wembley Stadium. Before that he trained with Coopers & Lybrand and specialised in recovery.

Such was the state of finances at the FA that Mr Horne told Accountancy Age in 2004 that the organisation could not forecast cash properly, this despite large sponsorship and television rights contracts generating unparalleled revenue.

In a statement, the FA announced Mr Horne as a replacement for Ian Whatmore, himself a high-flyer in finance and accounting having worked for Andersen Consulting.

Updated: 24 March 2010.
Categories: finance-and-accounting, market-and-industry-news.