Former Liverpool chairman and director Noel White has died at the age of 89.
White spent two decades on the Anfield board after arriving from Altrincham FC in 1986, which he had previously taken over with Peter Swales in February 1961.
During a brief spell as Reds’ chairman in the 1990/91 season, he played a key role in the club becoming one of five founding members of the Premier League.
Transforming the Kemlyn Road stand into the Centenary Stand, since renamed after Sir Kenny Dalglish, is another feat that took place under his stewardship.
The businessman spent also more than 30 years serving the Football Association, where he headed up their International Committee for almost half of that period.
White’s contribution to English football was finally recognised in 2013 when he was awarded a British Empire Medal for a long-standing service to the game.
However his time at Liverpool ended unceremoniously as he resigned in 2006 over comments criticising then manager Rafael Benitez in a national newspaper.
Dalglish worked with White during his first managerial spell at Anfield and led tributes to the late director.
He said: “Noel was a good man and his loss is keenly felt.
“In his time at Liverpool he demonstrated his commitment in many ways, none more so than when he invested his own money into the club during a period when such support was required.
“The work he did in the aftermath of Hillsborough, particularly in relation to organising the club’s involvement at the funerals that followed, underlined both his compassion and his diligence at a time when such qualities were required.
“I count myself as fortunate to have worked with Noel and my only disappointment in this respect is that we were not colleagues for particularly long due to my own decision to step down as manager in 1991.
“More than anything else, my thoughts at this time are with his wife, Jean, and the rest of his family.
“Noel was a good servant to Liverpool and he will be remembered as such.”