Lennox Lewis leads the tributes who assist honour for Jeff Powell

Mail Sport’s legendary sportswriter Jeff Powell has been made a Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for companies to journalism within the New Year’s Honours List.

Powell’s honour is a reward for 57 years because the most enduringly good sportswriter of his technology.

His profession has included a string of main exclusives, along with his work from soccer stadiums and ringside having been important studying for many years.

Powell has all the time maintained shut relationships with a few of sport’s best icons, together with being an in depth buddy of Bobby Moore and being the one British journalist to be invited to Muhammad Ali’s seventieth party.

Here, sporting greats pay their very own tributes to Jeff Powell and his contribution to journalism.

Sir Alex Ferguson

I’ve recognized Jeff Powell for over 40 years, and we crossed paths frequently throughout my time as a soccer supervisor in each Scotland and England and Jeff’s position on the Daily Mail.

We loved an incredible, skilled relationship and he was somebody who may very well be trusted and was honest and diligent in his reporting. 

I used to be amazed to find that he has labored on the Daily Mail for 57 years, which is a unprecedented contribution to journalism.

To put it in context, he has labored by a wide range of big adjustments throughout the newspaper trade and maintained his place as a number one determine inside that trade, which in itself is a exceptional achievement and proves his values as a journalist.

Lennox Lewis

From one champion to a different, Jeff Powell is the No 1 sportswriter of his time and the pre-eminent boxing correspondent on either side of the Atlantic.

He reported on all my triumphs and – occasional! – defeats over the many years with out worry or fervour. 

With candour and understanding. Always truthful however by no means unkind. A critic when required and a buddy in want.

His longevity is the hallmark of highest high quality in a career which could be at instances as brutal as boxing. 

I suppose the important distinction is that no prizefighter can preserve going for 50 years or extra.

Long could he final, writing with that verve and knowledge.

Bryan Robson

Jeff is the best soccer correspondent of his technology, educated, insightful and truthful in his reporting. 

Understanding and compassionate in instances of issue in addition to massively supportive in troublesome moments.

I regard him as a particular buddy in addition to being the excellent sportswriter on this nation.

He has all the time been loyal, sincere, honest and honourable all through his profession and is deeply revered on the planet of soccer.

I can consider no different journalist as worthy of an honour as Jeff.

Barry McGuigan

Apart from being one of many best writers on sport and significantly boxing on this nation for a few years Jeff is a totally respectable, honourable, and upstanding particular person who has represented every part that’s good about boxing. 

If there’s anybody who deserves recognition for his service to sport – and significantly to the game of boxing – it’s Jeff Powell.

George Graham

I can consider no different journalist extra deserving of recognition than Jeff Powell.

For greater than a half century of service to the Daily Mail he has been for my part the best sportswriter of his and another technology.

Amazingly he’s nonetheless going robust. The first newspaperman many people in sport flip to within the morning.

And right here am I, a Scot, scripting this about an Englishman!

Amir Khan

Jeff is probably the most honourable and dignified of all sports activities journalists and the very best knowledgeable. I write from the expertise of his reporting on my profession from my newbie Olympic success all the best way to my profitable of world championships.

During that journey he has befriended myself and my household, whereas all the time writing the reality. Such honesty with loyalty is uncommon within the sports activities writing career which he has now dominated for greater than half a century.

Jeff is totally with out prejudice or bias, it was a pleasure to have him and his beautiful spouse be part of us for my wedding ceremony in New York.

Carl Froch

Jeff is absolutely the maestro of world sports activities writing. He has been for 50 or extra years and hopefully will probably be for an extended whereas to come back.

As far as my sport is anxious his feeling and grasp of every part about boxing is exclusive in a journalist. That can solely have been achieved by a lifetime of exhausting work. 

It has been an added pleasure for me to learn Jeff’s accounts of my championship exploits within the ring after which to take a seat up late with him discussing every part as pals.

He is fearless and honest.

David Haye

Jeff has a deep understanding of the game and rapport with athletes that few can match. He’s not only a firm man, however a voice for the fighters, all the time talking from the guts.

In a world the place fluff and fiction too usually reign, Jeff’s integrity shines like a beacon.

He’s the form of journalist who stays true to his ideas, regardless of the fee, locking horns with boxing promoters, as he would not tow the corporate line. And what a legacy he has constructed! 

He’s been a fixture on the entrance row of boxing’s greatest bouts and press conferences for many years, all the time asking the awkward questions. He’s a real grasp of his craft.

Frank Warren

In my expertise, Jeff has all the time lined the game of boxing with the utmost integrity, while making certain occasions and boxers are all the time portrayed precisely.

Jeff is extremely regarded by a lot of the world’s sporting superstars due to his in-depth information of sport.

Jeff is now a senior statesman in sport journalism, and readily shares his information and expertise to assist younger up and coming writers develop their careers.

Sir Clive Woodward

I’ve recognized Jeff for over 30 years, within the first occasion as a extremely revered sports activities journalist, later turning into pals and now additionally as a a lot revered and appreciated colleague.

He is a person trusted by many coaches, athletes and gamers throughout the sports activities trade attributable to his journalistic integrity.

Jeff is unquestionably the elder statesman of British sporting journalism and a benchmark for all these younger journalists hoping to make a profession in journalism.

Given the standing that Jeff has earnt throughout the sporting neighborhood by his excessive customary of professionalism and the unprecedented size of time that Jeff has labored inside Fleet Street, I do imagine that he richly deserves to be recognised for his service to journalism.

Lord Moynihan

I used to be lucky to work with Jeff Powell through the troublesome and darkish days of the Eighties when hooliganism solid a shadow over English soccer and have become a serious political concern for Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister.

Few might match the neutral reporting experience of Jeff Powell which mixed an encyclopaedic information of our nationwide sport and a recognition that powerful and typically unpopular insurance policies wanted to be launched to extend security at our soccer grounds to satisfy the challenges which beset the sport. This he did with out ever adopting get together political positions.

Jeff Powell was a valued and extremely revered journalist on the time and was an everyday customer to Downing Street to supply his insights to Government.

He was the one journalist whose glorious work and writing on the topic achieved the best respect. He was very a lot valued by the Prime Minister.

Consequently his was a major contribution to the a lot wanted adjustments together with all-seater stadia and a variety of security measures together with the appearance of CCTV in any respect 92 skilled league soccer grounds. These concepts heralded a brand new period for our nationwide recreation after the Hillsborough tragedy.

There was no different British journalist masking boxing who had the next fame for writing with the fluency and understanding of a Damon Runyon and a capability to seize occasions with an intimate information of the mindset of sportsmen and girls; an intuitive relationship along with his readers and excellent writing abilities combining creativity with a whole understanding of the inside recesses of the world of sport.