BBC SPORT | Scotland | From Brechin to top table

New CBE David Will has risen from humble beginnings with Scottish Third Division Brechin City to become a controversial figure within world's football's most powerful organisation.

The Fifa vice-president's accolade in the Queen's Birthday Honours List arrives just as he is embroiled in a bitter head-to-head with president Sepp Blatter.

Will has been highly critical of Blatter as a result of an investigation into the finances of world football's governing body.

Blatter survived the criticism to be re-elected as president and now Will, who headed the internal audit committee, has come under fire from another Fifa vice-president.

Roddy Grant in action for Brechin
Will remains a fan of Brechin City
Jack Warner, Central and North American Football Confederation president and a staunch supporter of Blatter, has blamed Will for problems with the distribution of tickets at the World Cup in Korea and Japan.

It is all a long way from Will's time as chairman of Brechin.

He has since become synonymous with honesty and integrity in world football after joining Fifa from the Scottish Football Association in 1990.

Will had been selected by the four British nations to join the the executive committee.

He offered to step down as their representative last month, only to be persuaded to stay.

The former SFA treasurer was born in Edzell, just a few miles outside Brechin, and was an enthusiastic player before a skiing accident curtailed his amateur career.

Will, who is semi-retired from his role as a partner in a law firm, joined City in his 20s as a committee member before moving into the chairman's role in 1966, a position he held until the early 1990s.

He has never forgotten those roots and shed tears when manager Dick Campbell's team secured promotion from the Third Division against Peterhead on 30 March.


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