The unveiling of a statue to Blackpool right back football legend Jimmy Armfield is planned for May 1^st at a Gala dinner, forty years to the day after he played his last game for Blackpool FC. It was announced by Blackpool FC on October 30^th 2009 that Blackpool Supporters Association commissioned a statue to be built to honour the player’s successful career as a player from 1854-1971 and then as manager from 1971-1978. The sculpture will be erected by internationally renowned sculptor Les Johnson. The estimated £100,000 cost of the statue will come from fund raising events and on April 24^th of this year, Blackpool players aim to raise the final £25,000 needed to finish the statue by playing a marathon 24 hour match.

The life size Armfield statue was commissioned to honour what the Blackpool Gazetted have called, “One of the greatest players to ever grace Bloomfield Road”. The plan is for the statue, of Jimmy in one of his match poses, to be erected outside the West stand by the main entrance and is expected to be about nine feet in height. Between 1959 and 1966 Jimmy Armfield won 43 caps for England and between 1962 and 1964 was voted the best right back in Europe. Jimmy managed the ‘Seasiders’ from 1971 to 1978 when he took up a successful career in journalism and is well known nationally for his nigh on 30 years as match summariser for BBC Radio 5 Live. During his history as a player for the Seasiders Jimmy turned out for a record 627 matches and has since been honoured by the opening of the Jimmy Armfield South Stand at Bloomfield Road in May 2010 and in the 2010 New Years Honours’ List was awarded an OBE for services to the community.