Non league football clubs need two things apart from money to survive. One is an army of volunteers to help and assist the club in a variety of tasks, and the other is to have a history that players, supporters, and the wider public can draw upon to identify with the club.

John Haley performed both these in a manner that this week has earned him the title of "Mr Romford Football Club" and a "legend", as well as "possibly the most important person in Romford FC". They are big accolades, but not given lightly. I admit I had no real involvement in Romford FC before reformation, apart from watching one or two games as a youngster n the last season.
If we wanted to know something about the old club we would undoubtedly be directed to John Haley, or to something he had written.

Johns association with the club started in the 1960's and the roles he had with the club including, statistician, Football Secretary, and later became Company Secretary and Chief Executive Officer.
More recently John and another Romford FC stalwart Terry Felton starting cataloguing the history, photos, statistics into excellent books, charting the success of Romford FC. John's memory will live on through those books for generations of supporters and football supporters forever.

Outside of football John was a family man and our thoughts are with his family at this difficult time. The club will look at an appropriate tribute to John, when the new season starts.