Former Man City, Arsenal, Sunderland and International Irish footballer Niall Quinn - Success tips in sport and business.

Doug Gordon (0:00)

Hello, welcome, my name is Doug Gordon.

Doug Gordon (0:01)

I host the show of Inspirational People, Inspirational Stories, where the aim of the show is to do inspiring people by being successful in their field or inspire others to success in some form. Today's guest is Niall Quinn.

Doug Gordon (0:13)

Niall is a former professional soccer player and the country's second highest ever goalscorer.

Doug Gordon (0:18)

He has a highly successful club career with spells at Arsenal, Manchester City and Sunderland. And his international career included two successful World Cups for Ireland.

Doug Gordon (0:27)

Postplaying football, he's won an honorary NBA.

Doug Gordon (0:29)

He briefly managed Sunderland before becoming their chairman. He was a television pundit and now a highly successful entrepreneur.

Doug Gordon (0:37)

I first met Niall at the World Summit, where we shared the stage together.

Doug Gordon (0:41)

And since then, I've got to know him a little bit. And I have to say, he really is a true inspiration and I'm happy to have him on the show.

Doug Gordon (0:46)

Niall.

Doug Gordon (0:46)

Welcome to the show.

Niall Quinn (0:48)

Thank you, Doug. It's an MBE I got, not an NBA. But that's okay. It was at a funny time in my life. So it was when the Troubles were still at their height and the Good Friday Agreement was in progress. And my mother and my wife insisted that I took an honorary MBE that was offered to me. Bertie Hearn was also very kind and asked me to do the same thing. Tom Blair was my local MP. And I felt I had to do that in the end. And I did it. Glad I did now. But it was a tough one at the time, you know, with what was happening in the North. Of course, it turned out to be the right thing, but I had to ask myself a few serious questions before I did it. And my friends, I got an invite then. I didn't go to Buckingham Palace. I had a choice to go to Buckingham Palace or go to the Ambassador's Residence in Ireland. So I went to the Ambassador's Residence in Ireland and my friends, Nikki English, Joe Hayes, great orators for Tipperary, they said, look, we'll look after the celebration. We'll bring you somewhere really nice afterwards. And they brought me to the Palace and Fleet Street for a few pints.

So I didn't go to the Palace, I didn't do the whole rig roll. I went to the Palace and Fleet Street, which is a real GAA nationalist pover anyway. And so that was my MBE story. So sorry, I interjected to your show and I'm taking it off. I'm so sorry.

Doug Gordon (2:06)

No, one of the things that I love about you, because obviously I heard a little bit about your story when you were speaking at the World Summit, is when you did, for those of you that don't know, in the old days, they might make quite as much money as they do now. And in retirement, they used to do a testimonial match, and all the proceeds would go to the player. And in your testimony match, which was Ireland against Sunderland, you made 1.5 million and you gave it all away to charity.

Niall Quinn (2:32)

Well, it's very kind of you to present it like that, but how it came about was Sunderland wanted me to sign a new contract, and rather than give me money, offered me a game that I didn't quite deserve because I hadn't done 10 years at the club. So just to qualify what you said, you also had to have done 10 years at your club to get a testimonial, and I hadn't, I'd only done six.

I felt they were using that as a way of not paying me my true reward. Anyway, between the jigs and the reels, I got what I wanted in my contract. I held firm and got the pay rise that I felt I deserved, and I was quite happy with it, but the game was still on the table. Then I said to myself, okay, well, now's the chance to do something good. I got what I wanted, but I'll donate the game to charity, and that was fine, and what the problem was, it got leaked before I was ready for it, and Tony Blair announced it in question time in the Commons. Bertie Ahern announced it in the same structure and shocked it all. Suddenly, I was headline newspaper, was the first person in the world ever to give his testimonial away, and it got so big so quickly, I didn't even put a committee together, I did nothing about it, had no tickets to sell, and it became something that just took off, and the world of football embraced it. Seth Blatter, who was a big noise at the time in FIFA, sent me a fabulous note congratulating me, and it was a curious time, but the most important memory I have of the whole thing was, we could maybe get a big crowd at Sunderland, and let's see how we can do that, get the tickets sold. But I got a letter from a Sunderland fan in prison, and his letter changed the whole course of that whole sort of project. And he said, I've been an naughty lad, I've done things I shouldn't have done. He said, I've come to see that in my time here. He said, I'm a huge Sunderland fan, I'm a great admirer of you. I don't have a lot of money. Obviously, I can't attend the game, but if you could send me a non-attendance ticket and a match program, I have £10 saved up, and I'll send it to the charity. It was just a letter, handwritten letter from, you know, the big prison in Durham. I thought, wow, that's interesting. I wonder what anybody else do that. And then I got speaking, as I was putting the committee together, to a very good friend of mine in Barkley's Bank at the time, who was sponsoring the Permu League. And all the call centers were in Sunderland for Barkley's. And he said, so what we'll do, we'll set up around the clock call answering.