Fergie leads tributes for ‘magnifico’ Malcolm

Following his death at the age of 86, numerous tributes have been paid to Malcolm Brodie, the veteran Belfast Telegraph football writer who covered every World Cup from 1954 to 2006.

Although born in Scotland, he became synonymous with sport in Northern Ireland, having been evacuated from Glasgow to Portadown during the Second World War. Starting his career in journalism with the Portadown News, he subsequently joined the Belfast Telegraph and became the paper’s Sports Editor.

But it was as the ‘Telly’s’ chief football writer that Brodie achieved international renown, eventually earning an MBE and also seeing Fifa officially recognise his achievement in covering no less than 14 World Cups, including the finals of 1958, ’82 and ’86 in which his adopted home country took part.