New Year Honours for Mansfield man for services to young people and sport
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Graham Nelson Hall BEM, aged 72 from Mansfield, is on the New Year Honours list 2024 for his services to young people and sport.
The annual New Year Honours list marks “the achievements and service of extraordinary people across the UK.”
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Mr Hall has been awarded the title due to his lifetime of service to young people and sport.
He remains actively involved in youth football, with current involvement in Meden Vale Colts FC.
The club has dubbed the news as a “remarkable achievement” and one that is “completely deserved.”
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Hide AdThe vice president of Nottinghamshire Football Association began volunteering in 1970 when he started a football team in Warsop Parish which became Welbeck Welfare FC and he remained involved for a 46-year period.
In 1970, he also joined the committee of the Chad Mansfield youth league.
The league organised football games every Saturday for 350 teams in the age groups 12-18.
In 1974, he was elected to the position of youth league treasurer and in 1981 he took on the role of league secretary until 2019 when the league ceased to operate.
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Hide AdIn 1998 at the same time, he was club secretary to Welbeck Miners Welfare FC also on a voluntary basis.
In 2002, he had no hesitation in offering his young Welbeck teams a chance to not only play on Saturday but Sunday as well in the newly formed Kickstart Sunday mini soccer league for under sevens to under 11s, where he devoted even more of his voluntary time both in an advisory and managerial capacity.
He was key in achieving funding from the Football Foundation.
The 72-year-old relinquished his post as league secretary to the Chad Mansfield youth league in 2018 after 37 years following the decline in membership, but he still serves on the committee in the hope that the league will be resurrected in the future.
He was awarded the role of vice president of Nottinghamshire FA by the board to declare their “appreciation for his loyalty, time, dedication and longevity”.