So Bob Lord, chairman of Burnley Football Club, is a strange man. For his name is known by football fans all over Britain - and by people who don't care a fig for football. He would be recognised as easily as any soccer star or pop singer. For Bob Lord is one of the few real characters in football. He has made more enemies and more friends than anyone else in the game. To his friends he is a brilliant chairman and a fair man. To his enemies he is just a loud-mouthed tub-thumper. To himself? "I'm the chairman of Burnley Football Club, the best club in th,world" is how he would put it.

Bob Lord is Lancashire through and through. He is a typical Lancashireman in so far as he will say exactly what he thinks. So many people - and many of them are in football - are happy enough to speak their minds in private, but once they get into public session they keep quiet, accept what is given to them even though they may be unhappy about it. That is not the way of Bob Lord. He says what he believes about an issue. And what he has to say doesn't always make him popular.

Not long after the Munich disaster in 1958, Bob Lord described the new Manchester United as "a bunch of teddy boys." That was at the time when the doings of Manchester United were saturated in public sympathy. When Burnley were facing a congested fixture list due to their success in the F.A. Cup and the European Cup, Bob Lord supported manager Harry Potts's decision to select 10 reserves for the league game against Chelsea. Even after Burnley had been fined �1000 by the Football League, Bob Lord still came out and said, in effect: " We were right and the Football League is wrong to punish us."

When Tottenham Hotspur faced the same trouble for the same reason last season, Bob Lord announced that the English system made it almost impossible for an English team to win the European Cup. "But," he added, " we'll help Spurs all we can." After one of Burnley's European Cup matches, Bob Lord scorned the usual clich�s and attacked the referee. And he crossed swords with the referee (a Football League referee) during the New York International Tournament.

Last season, Bob Lord hit out at the Football Association over the allocation of semi-final venues. Burnley were drawn to play the winners of the Fulham v. Blackburn Rovers tie. Fulham, their eventual opponents, were scheduled for Villa Park, Blackburn for Burnden Park, Bolton. Neither venue suited Bob Lord. He didn't like Villa Park because Burnley rarely play well there. He didn't like Bolton because the gate receipts would not be high enough. He believed Burnley should have been called upon to play at Maine Road, Manchester, or Hillsborough, Sheffield - the ground chosen for Tottenham Hotspur's semi-final against Manchester United.

Bob Lord went even further. He claimed that the semi-finalists should select their own venues and only call upon the Football Association if they cannot agree. He dropped a further bombshell by adding: "And while they are about it, the F.A. should give 40,000 Cup Final tickets to each of the two finalists." Bob Lord's opponents were quick to point out that Burnley's average gate is only around the 25,000 mark. All that goes to make up the public image of Bob Lord, the big, blustering chairman of Burnley. But what is he really like? Is he really the tyrant and dictator he seems to be, the sort of man who bans newspaper reporters from the Turf Moor ground if he doesn't like their stories?

In actual fact, Bob Lord is nothing like that. He is a fair man who will listen to the other fellow's point of view. He is a man who believes that no one will ever make any progress unless everyone is willing to thrash out all the problems frankly. Away from football he is a successful butcher, and he still works the sort of day that would make younger men wince. Early in the morning he is up and looking after his butchery business. Then he is off to see his second love-Burnley Football Club.

A supporter of the club for well over forty years, Bob Lord became a director in 1951, and four years later was elected chairman. He is not the sort of man who takes on a job he cannot do well, so he buckled down to achieve his ambition-making Burnley England's No. 1 club. To the manager he gave full control. All Harry Potts had to do was to satisfy the high Lord standard - "I want Burnley the best, not the second best." Meanwhile Bob Lord went ahead giving England's best team a headquarters worthy of its success on the field.

No huge cheques were handed out by Burnley for players. Alex Elder and Jimmy McIlroy were signed as promising youngsters for small fees. The rest of the team were developed through the Burnley junior teams. On the other side of the ledger, big money was received for the transfer of players like Pilkington, Lawson and Furnell, and the Burnley scheme of things was never more evident than in the transfer of Pilkington. Not long after the outside left scored two fantastic goals against Hamburg S.V. in the European Cup tie, he was dropped because of loss of form. He asked to leave, so Burnley transferred him to Bolton Wanderers for �35,000. Within a few months, his successor, Gordon Harris, was an England under-z3 winger!

Behind the scenes, Burnley can boast of a modern training camp just outside the town, up-to-date medical rooms, a gymnasium, lavish boardrooms and guest rooms and more covered accommodation than the ground has ever known. And not all the plans are completed. For Bob Lord is not satisfied now he has Burnley as England's No. 1 club - and he will argue for hours with you if you dare to suggest that Burnley are not No. 1. He wants to keep them there.

It is the fanatical devotion to his job and to the club that has helped Bob Lord to this staggering success. For staggering it is. The town of Burnley has often been hit by industrial depression, and its population has now dwindled to 80,000. True, some Burnley supporters live outside the town, but competition for support is tough in those parts with so many Football League teams in the area all having their claim. Yet Burnley have developed the Real Madrid outlook to life, and by giving the public a successful team, a good ground and entertaining football, they have forced their way to the top. Only two of the side - skipper Jimmy Adamson and Tommy Cummings - are what can be called veterans. The other nine are all of international class - and young enough to keep Burnley at the top.

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