Charles Martin Edwards (born 24 July 1945) is the former chairman of
Manchester United
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...
, a position he held from 1980 until 2002. He now holds the position of honorary life president at the club and Director of
Inview Technology Ltd
Inview Technology (Inview Technology Ltd or simply Inview) is a UK-based digital TV software company. It specialises in advanced EPGs, interactive broadcast, IP services and solutions for Pay-TV and analogue switch off markets. Their OTT TV ...
.
Biography
Education
Edwards was born at St Mary's Services Hospital in
Adlington, Cheshire
Adlington is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It is known as ''Eduluintune'' in the Domesday Book. According to the 2001 census the civil parish had a populatio ...
, England. At 13, he failed the entrance exam for
Stowe School
, motto_translation = I stand firm and I stand first
, established =
, closed =
, type = Public school Independent school, day & boarding
, religion = Church of England
, president =
, head_label = Headmast ...
, his parents' first choice, and went to
Cokethorpe instead. He left in 1963 with six
O levels. and started work in the family meat business, initially working as an assistant in shops and on meat counters. He later moved to head office in
Miles Platting to work for quality control and sales departments of the manufacturing division, then in the sales office of the catering division. In 1973, he became retail/wholesale controller. Edwards was a director of
Argyll Foods until November 1983.
Manchester United
He was elected to the Manchester United board in March 1970. He became chairman on 22 March 1980 following the sudden and unexpected death of his father
Louis on 25 February, who had been chairman for the previous 15 years. After
the Football Association
The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world a ...
voted to allow football clubs to have one paid director, Edwards became chief executive on 5 January 1982 and paid himself an annual salary of
£30,000.
During the
1979–80 season when Edwards took over as chairman, United finished runners-up to
Liverpool
Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...
in the
Football League First Division
The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...
, but had not won the league title since 1967 and had not won a major trophy at all in three seasons of
Dave Sexton's management. At the end of the
1980–81 season, United finished eighth in the league after seven successive wins at the end of the season. Manager Dave Sexton was looking set to be offered a new three-year contract, but the deal was never signed and Edwards sacked Sexton after four seasons without a trophy.
Edwards then began the hunt for a new manager. There was talk that he would appoint
Lawrie McMenemy, who had guided
Southampton
Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...
to a shock win over United in the
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football compet ...
final
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
*Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event
** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...
five years earlier, as successor to Dave Sexton. It was also rumoured that United were interested in recruiting
Brian Clough
Brian Howard Clough ( ; 21 March 1935 – 20 September 2004) was an English football player and manager, primarily known for his successes as a manager with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. He is one of four managers to have won the Engli ...
, a league title winner and twice a
European Cup
The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...
winner with
Nottingham Forest, but Edwards insisted that he would not be approaching Clough. He instead turned to
Ron Atkinson, whose impressive
West Bromwich Albion
West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pl ...
side had qualified for the
UEFA Cup
A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...
three times in four seasons with top-five league finishes, reaching the quarter-finals on one occasion. Atkinson insisted in his footballing biography published in 1999 that Edwards was the best chairman he worked for, and he accepted the offer, and soon after this appointment, Edwards made the funds available for Atkinson to bring in Albion's midfielder
Bryan Robson
Bryan Robson OBE (born 11 January 1957) is an English football manager and former player. He began his career with West Bromwich Albion in 1972, where he amassed over 200 appearances and was club captain before moving to Manchester United in ...
for a national record fee of £1.5 million. This national record would remain unbroken by English clubs for six years, and Robson went on to be one of the club's greatest ever players.
Atkinson guided United to two FA Cup glories (the first in 1983 and the second in 1985) but in the
1985–86 season United faded away to finish fourth after a 10-match winning start to the league season, and speculation about his future as manager was mounting.
In 1983, Edwards had begun looking for younger colleagues to introduce to the club's board.
Sir Matt Busby had been appointed president of the club and
Michael Edelson was appointed to replace him on the board by Edwards, followed in June 1984 by the addition of club solicitor
Maurice Watkins and club legend
Bobby Charlton.
In the summer of 1986, Edwards generated £2.3 million (a record fee involving a British club, though Robson's record set in 1981 had yet to be broken by a British club) from the sale of striker
Mark Hughes to
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
of Spain.
On 4 November 1986, United were floundering in the bottom half of the top division and that night were eliminated from the
Football League Cup
The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by t ...
with a 4–1 defeat at
Southampton
Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...
. The following day, the four-man board convened in Edwards's Old Trafford office and decided a change of manager had to be made. The unanimous decision was to see if
Alex Ferguson, then manager of
Aberdeen F.C. in the Scottish league was available. According to Ferguson's autobiography, he received a telephone call in his office at
Pittodrie from a man with a Scottish accent. He subsequently discovered that this was Manchester United director
Michael Edelson who asked Ferguson if he would be interested in meeting Edwards. Following a short discussion, Edwards made contact with
Aberdeen
Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), a ...
chairman
Dick Donald
Richard MacNaughton Donald (20 February 1911 – 30 December 1993) was a Scottish footballer, businessman and football administrator. He is best known for his time as Chairman of Aberdeen Football Club during the club's most successful period i ...
and the four-man United board drove immediately to meet Ferguson halfway between the two cities in Glasgow. Negotiations were quickly concluded and 72 hours later Ferguson was installed as manager of
Manchester United
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...
.
He rejected a £10m bid for the club by
Robert Maxwell
Ian Robert Maxwell (born Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch; 10 June 1923 – 5 November 1991) was a Czechoslovak-born British media proprietor, Parliament of the United Kingdom, member of parliament (MP), suspected spy, and fraudster.
Early i ...
in 1984. In 1989, he tried to sell the club to the property developer
Michael Knighton
Michael Knighton (born 4 October 1951) is an English businessman, best known for his involvement in Manchester United and Carlisle United football clubs. Knighton first came to prominence in 1989 for his aborted £20 million bid to buy Manc ...
for £20m. The sale collapsed when after being given access to the club's books Knighton was unable to raise the funds to pay for the club. However, Knighton was still given a seat on the board, and sources at the time suggested that this was in exchange for keeping quiet about what he had seen in the books.
After the failed sale the club's other directors persuaded Edwards to float the club on the stock market. This raised significant funds the majority for the existing shareholders such as Edwards. Being a public company did not have the stabilising effect that was originally hoped for. The club has been subject to takeover proposals by
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...
's BSkyB with Edwards reportedly agreeing to sell his stake for £98 million. Edwards gradually disposed of his equity in the club and resigned as Chief Executive in 2000, appointing
Peter Kenyon
Peter Kenyon (born 1954 in Stalybridge, Cheshire) is a British businessman who has served as the chief executive of English Premier League football clubs Manchester United and Chelsea, where he has been involved in contentious transfer dealings.
...
as his successor.
Meanwhile, his efforts helped Manchester United enjoy some of the finest moments of their history during the 1990s and 2000s. The appointment of Alex Ferguson as manager in 1986 was indeed the turning point in United's history after two decades of relative mediocrity, but it took time for things to improve.
United finished second in the league in
1987–88 (Ferguson's first full season as manager), and around this time Edwards had made millions of pounds available to strengthen the squad with the reacquisition of Mark Hughes as well as the signing of high-profile players, including
Brian McClair,
Gary Pallister,
Paul Ince
Paul Emerson Carlyle Ince (; born 21 October 1967) is an English professional football manager and former player who is the current manager of EFL Championship side Reading. A former midfielder, Ince played professionally from 1982 to 2007, sta ...
,
Neil Webb and
Danny Wallace. However, an 11th-place finish in
1988–89 tested the patience of the club's supporters and as 1989 drew to a close, United's form was so bad (they occupied 15th place in the league on Christmas Day) that there were continued calls from the fans for Alex Ferguson to be sacked. Fans also demanded Edwards's resignation. However, Edwards stood by the manager and insisted that the issue of Ferguson being sacked was never up for debate. While Edwards admitted that he was disappointed with the lack of progress in the league, he understood the reasons for the disappointment, which was largely down to a series of injuries to key players, and said that he was pleased with Ferguson for his reorganisation of the squad.
The decision by Edwards to remain loyal to Ferguson paid off in
1989–90 as United lifted the
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football compet ...
to end their five-year wait for a major trophy. A year later, United won the
European Cup Winners' Cup. 1992 saw United win their first-ever League Cup, and a year later they ended their 26-year wait for the league title when crowned champions of the inaugural
Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...
.
The double followed a year later.
1994–95 was a relative disappointment for Edwards and indeed everyone else connected to United as they were pipped to both the league title and the FA Cup and left without a trophy, but United bounced back the following year to win a unique second double. By this stage, Edwards had been able to raise the funds for United to break the national transfer record on two occasions in the space of 18 months – the £3.75 million move for
Roy Keane in the 1993 close season, and the £6 million move for
Andrew Cole
Andrew Alexander Cole (born 15 October 1971) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker. His professional career lasted from 1988 to 2008, and is mostly remembered for his time with Manchester United, who paid a Briti ...
in January 1995. The success continued for the rest of the decade with another league title in 1997 and a unique league title/FA Cup/
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...
treble in 1999. By the end of the decade, Edwards had made available the cash for United to buy the first two eight-figure signings of their history – defender
Jaap Stam
Jakob Stam (; born 17 July 1972) is a Dutch professional football coach and former player. As a player, he played as a centre-back and is regarded as one of the best defenders of his generation.
Stam played for several European clubs including ...
and striker
Dwight Yorke.
In the
1998–99 he had accepted a £623 million bid from
BSkyB
Sky UK Limited is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television and broadband Internet services, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of ...
to take over Manchester United, but the takeover was cancelled after the
Monopolies and Mergers Commission
The Competition Commission was a non-departmental public body responsible for investigating mergers, markets and other enquiries related to regulated industries under competition law in the United Kingdom. It was a competition regulator under ...
blocked it. The Irish duo
J. P. McManus and
John Magnier also built a significant stake in the club. However, the club continued to have unprecedented success on the football pitch despite an uneasy relationship between manager Alex Ferguson and Martin Edwards. The success continued into the 21st century, as United retained the Premier League title in 2000 with a record 18-point margin and gained their third successive title the following year.
Edwards enabled United to break the national transfer record twice in 2001 when they signed Dutch striker
Ruud van Nistelrooy
Rutgerus Johannes Martinus van Nistelrooij (anglicised to Van Nistelrooy; born 1 July 1976) is a Dutch professional football coach and former player. He is currently the coach of PSV Eindhoven.
A former footballer, Van Nistelrooy is often consi ...
and
Argentine midfielder
Juan Sebastián Verón, but he was forced to resign as chairman in November 2002, after allegations of using a prostitute on an official club business trip to Switzerland. Despite this, he continued to represent the club at FA and UEFA meetings.
He sold his 6.7% share in the club to new investor Harry Dobson in 2003.
Premier League
Edwards was also part of the 'Big 5', who drove the formation of the Premier League and pulled away from the Football League. In 1985, he said that "smaller clubs are bleeding the game dry. For the sake of the game, they should be put to sleep".
Personal life
Edwards married Susan Lloyd Jones in Bucklow, Cheshire, in 1968. They have two children, James Louis born in 1969 and Lucinda Jane born in 1972.
Controversy
Affairs
He has been subject to several newspaper allegations about his private life, alleging several affairs. It was also alleged that he used prostitutes while on club business, in Britain, Brazil and most recently in Switzerland.
Toilet peeping incident
Edwards received a police caution following an incident at the Mottram Hall Hotel, near Macclesfield, Cheshire, on 17 August 2002. A woman in her 40s alleged that he had entered the ladies toilets and spied under one of the cubicles at her.
He resigned from the Manchester United board soon after news of the caution broke, and stepped down as chairman seven months later. After the incident, further witnesses came forward stating that they, too, had been victims of similar behaviour in toilets at Old Trafford.
Careless driving
In July 2005, Edwards was convicted of careless driving, having been involved in a head-on collision near
Conwy, North Wales, that April. He had just left the A55 near Conwy golf club, and took a right-hand bend on the wrong side of the road. In a letter to the court, Edwards explained how he had assumed he was on a one-way road after leaving the expressway. The driver of the other car, a Vauxhall Corsa, was badly hurt in the crash, after his car had collided with Edwards's Mercedes-Benz. Edwards was fined £500 plus £45 in prosecution costs, as well as receiving five points on his driving licence.
References
;General
*
;Specific
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Martin
1945 births
Living people
Manchester United F.C. directors and chairmen
English football chairmen and investors
People from Adlington, Cheshire
People educated at Cokethorpe School
Sportspeople from Cheshire