After Dinner Speakers: John Fashanu, Sue Townsend, Anthony Hopkins

Toyah Wilcox said his chauvanism got in the way of his being a gentleman. The early favourite to get voted out, John grew on audiences by overcoming his all too obvious fobias, by his 'focus' and his fanatical martial arts excercises. This former professional footballer came through associate schoolboy ranks with Cambridge United, was signed by Norwich in October 1979. He made his debut two years later on 17th October 1981 as substitute at home to Shrewsbury. A successful goalscorer with the Reserves, John was unable to break into the first team and made just seven appearances scoring once against Cambridge in a 4-1 victory that I remember well. A loan period at Crystal Palace was followed by a Ł15,000 transfer to Lincoln City in September 1983. 11 goals in 36 league games attracted the attention of Millwall who signed him in November 1984. Wimbledon signed him for Ł125,000 in March 1986 after 50 games for Millwall had produced 12 goals. His bustling, competitive play was central to the success of Wimbledon in the late 1980s with promotion to Division One and an FA Cup final victory over Liverpool. Personal success followed in that in 276 league games for the Dons, he scored 107 goals. This scoring rate earned him an international debut for England against Chile in May 1989. This was joined by a second cap against Scotland. In the summer of 1994, he surprised everyone with a move to Aston Villa. In early 1995, the Sun newspaper made match-fixing allegations against him, Hans Segers and Bruce Grobelaar which led to police involvement and arrests. Retiring early from football due to injury, these allegations have not seriously damaged his likeable off-field reputation that has been developed via his role as presenter of TV show The Gladiators and his charity work for Africa. In August 1997, the three players were found not guilty of these charges although they had to pay their own legal expenses. For John, this was Ł650,000. John is currently business advisor to Norwich boxer Herbie Hide. He also hopes to gain a FIFA transfer agent's license. In February 1998, John was appointed Sports Ambassador for Nigeria but despite these roles, John stated that he was interested in managing Wimbledon following the sacking of Egil Olsen at the beginning of May 2000. However he would face competition from Vinnie Jones and Aage Hareide. On 13th December 2001, it was confirmed that John's company had made a bid to buy Northampton Town. Despite talk relating to this lasting through to the summer of 2002, it never materialised. Instead John was announced on 17th December 2002 as the new chairman of Welsh Premier League side Barry Town, managed by Kenny Brown. Fashanu has expressed a desire to make Barry into a European success by bringing in players from Africa. Former Nigerian international and Derby defender Taribo West was named as one of Fashanu's first targets. Although Fash could not locate West who eventually signed for Yugoslav club partizan Belgrade, Fashanu did bring Nigerian Olympic gold medallist and World Cup star Abiodum Baruwa to Barry in January 2003. He has also negotiated a link-up with Manchester United and has tried to sell TV rights to Welsh games to 55 African nations. He has also been appointed Chair of the Nigerian Football League. A truly charismatic, determined and articulate individual, John Fashanu has a fascinating life story to tell.