Northern Ireland Football Writers' Association

PRESIDENT
Dr Malcolm Brodie
CHAIRMAN
Mark McIntosh
(Sunday Mirror)
VICE CHAIRMAN
Paul Ferguson
(Sunday Life)
SECRETARY
Ian Callender
TREASURER
Denise Watson
COMMITTEE
Chris Holt
Ivan Martin
Paul Ferguson
Ruth Gorman

enquiries@nifwa.com

Manager of the Year
Linfield boss David Jeffrey picks up our award from Jimmy Nicholl following the Blues' sixth League and Cup double in seven seasons.

Premiership Player of the Year

Championship 1 Player of the Year

Crusaders midfielder Chris Morrow was rated as our top man of the 2011/12 campaign.

Chris Curran of Ballinamallard collects his trophy from Keith Bailie at our Awards Dinner.

Goal of the Year
Rory Donnelly's curling strike for Cliftonville against Linfield came out top in our fans' poll.

The Northern Ireland Football Writers' Association is a voluntary organisation formed to support and promote professional football writing in Northern Ireland.

The objectives of the Association are:
- to maintain the prestige of football writers
- to obtain a higher standard of facilities at grounds
- to maintain a professional and friendly liaison with all football associations, leagues and clubs
- to welcome and entertain overseas football writers carrying out their duties in Northern Ireland
- to be a medium for the reporting of grievances for action by the office bearers
- the doing of all such other things as are incidental and conducive to the attainment of the above

NIFWA was formed at a meeting in the Editorial offices of Sunday News on May 4, 1967 after various members expressed the need for the existence of such an organisation in Northern Ireland.
Jack Milligan was the first Chairman, Derek Murray the first Secretary and Gerry McGuigan the first Treasurer.
The first annual (Irish Cup final) Dinner was held in the Park Avenue Hotel on Thursday, April 25, 1968 with 15 present, including the cup final managers. There were eight official guests at the second annual Dinner and all the managers of Irish League clubs were invited.
The first Northern Ireland Football Writers Player of the Year was handed over by the chairman at the annual Dinner in 1970.
Guinness were approached in October 1970 regarding sponsorship of the Association. They put forward Ł100 for the Leading Goalscorer of the Year and the Dinner was sponsored by Guinness from 1972 until 2009, with more than 300 guests attending our most recent annual Dinner at Belfast's Europa Hotel.

NIFWA currently has in excess of 60 members, five of which are honorary office bearers, elected annually. A committee of at least six members is also elected at the AGM. Members comprise journalists from BBC Northern Ireland, UTV, Cool FM, Belfast Telegraph, Sunday Life, Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, News of the World, Sunday World, News Letter, the Sun and regional newspapers throughout Northern Ireland.