John Bowler receives the 'Contribution to League Football Award' In London

Crewe Alexandra’s long serving chairman John Bowler has been honoured with the Football League’s most prestigious award at tonight’s gala event at the Brewery in London.

The club chairman was the recipient of the Contribution to League Football Award - the highest honour bestowed by the board of the Football League.

John joined the board of directors at Crewe Alexandra in 1980, and succeeded Norman Rowlinson as chairman in 1987. Together with Dario Gradi, also a past recipient of the Football League Award in 2011, they have built Crewe Alexandra into one of the most respected and admired Football Clubs in the country. He has helped establish the club as a production line of young talent with the likes of Danny Murphy, Dean Ashton, David Platt, Neil Lennon, Rob Jones, Geoff Thomas and Robbie Savage all going on to play International football for their respective countries.

Bowler’s incredible vision in a competitive North West pool of talent has also seen the likes of Nick Powell, Ashley Westwood and Luke Murphy move to bigger clubs in recent years. Over the past 27 years, John and Dario have helped reap over £30 million in transfer fees, as well as developing the Alexandra Stadium, the impressive Reaseheath training complex and the Alexandra Soccer Centre at Shavington for the local community to use in South Cheshire.

On receiving his award, John was described as “the man who has laid foundations off-the-pitch that are the envy of clubs in the Premier League, let alone the lower divisions.”

Previous winners of the award include our own Dario Gradi MBE, the 1974 World Cup Final referee Jack Taylor, Jimmy Armfield, Jimmy Hill OBE, the former Shrewsbury boss Graham Turner and the PFA Chairman Gordon Taylor OBE.

Everyone at Crewe Alexandra would like to congratulate John Bowler on this fantastic honour.