Harry Gregg ‘wouldn’t have wanted statue at Old Trafford’

The former Manchester United and Northern Ireland goalkeeper, a hero of the Munich air disaster of 1958, died on Sunday aged 87.

Henry Winter, chief football writer at The Times, called for a statue of Mr Gregg to be built outside Manchester United’s ground, Old Trafford.

But Andy Alcorn, chair of the Harry Gregg Foundation, said the man himself always had a “clear stance” that he would not want anything like that.

“He declined the statue in Coleraine before and preferred the foundation as the idea of his living legacy,” Mr Alcorn said.

“He preferred that some young person may get the opportunity to live a life like he lived his; that someone may get that chance going from 34 Windsor Avenue to living his dream.”

In 2013, a statue of Mr Gregg was given the green light to be erected in Coleraine, but it never went ahead after Mr Gregg declined the opportunity.

Writing in The Times, Mr Winter had argued a statue outside Old Trafford “would be fitting” to commemorate Mr Gregg.

“The word ‘hero’ is used far too freely in football but Harry Gregg’s actions shortly after 3pm on Feburary 6, 1958, at Munich-Reim Airport, returning to a burning plane to rescue friends and strangers, is the epitome of bravery,” he said.

“He went back in, again and again. A statue outside Old Trafford would be fitting.

“This is no way a specific criticism of United, just a general plea for the game to tend better to those who served so loyally – heroically in Gregg’s case.

“He gave such joy on the pitch, and risked his life off it, that an indebted nation and sport owes gratitude in return.

“Yet the feeling is that football, and society, short-changed Harry Gregg. The establishment was slow to recognise his heroism, bestowing him with an MBE only in 1995, and an OBE last year.

“Harry Gregg has left this earth, but his legacy lives on in his family, in his foundation and in a reminder to all of the importance of courage. He went back in.”

Books of condolence have been set up in Coleraine town hall and at Windsor Park in Belfast where Irish FA chief executive Patrick Nelson was one of the first to sign.

Mr Gregg’s funeral will be held in St Patrick’s Parish Church, Coleraine, on Friday at noon followed by interment in Coleraine Cemetery (cortege via The Showgrounds).

A delegation from Manchester United, the club he played for 247 times, will be at the service.

It is expected to include Sir Alex Ferguson and Sir Bobby Charlton, one of six people Mr Gregg rescued from the burning wreckage after the plane crash in Munich.