More about Danny McConnell

I was born in March 1966 in Enfield, north London, to Tom and Judith, with a younger sister, Becca and brother, Rob, following on.

I grew up in Wimborne in Dorset - taking scientific A levels and playing rugby for the school and Wimborne Rugby Club, until five years as a tight head prop led to a premature retirement from the game aged 19, with a dodgy back. I also played pretty much every other sport possible, none of them to any distinction!

In 1984 I went to University College London to study Chemistry, graduating in 1987 but staying on to take a postdoctorate in Quantum Mechanics and Molecular Modelling, whilst playing football regularly, first for the student sides and then the alumni club. 

In 1991 having exhausted the opportunities to remain a student and having confirmed there is no hidden fun side to Quantum Mechanics, I returned to Dorset to set up my own postal games simulation business (which over the years has morphed into Internet Gaming), combining a long held interest in games and my wide interest in sports (particular American Sports).

In 1996 I returned to London, the "18 months to set up the business" having proved to be rather longer than expected, to be with Jan, who I'd met at UCL back in the 80s. Living in Beckenham/Bromley (one of the bits of London that likes to pretend it's Kent) I soon returned to the UCL alumni football club, UCL Academicals and soon after was elected (or lumbered!) as Chairman/Secretary, though I've now stepped down from the Secretary role. In 1999 yet another sporting career apparently came to an end, a knee injury ending my time as an undistinguished defender and I converted to an undistinguished goalkeeper, although in the last few years I've returned to outfield cameos and fulfilling the invaluable role of "semi competent substitute who doesn't mind if he doesn't get on the pitch". Whilst I am a qualified referee, I'm classified as "inactive". 

As of 2011, known as "The Turtle" (due to an alleged resemblance in goalkeeping gear to the Teenage Mutant Ninjas) I'm still occasionally showing off my talents for the "Accies" and for Watson Farley Williams in the London Legal League, albeit increasingly infrequently, and I fear (others hope) the end may be near!

Since then I've become more and more involved in football administration, as well as web design, publishing and dabbling in journalism (motto "never let the truth ruin a good story"), and my business life now combines the postal/internet games simulation with an increasingly wide variety of Football Administration. 

I am Secretary of the Amateur Football Combination, England's largest adult football league, and a Director and Vice-President of the Amateur Football Alliance, as well as working as a League Administration Consultant for the Football Association, travelling all over England to give talks to leagues and counties about football administration, and Full-Time, the FA's League Administration system. I've recently stepped down as Secretary of the London Legal League, and am also Vice-Chairman of the cricket section at Beckenham Cricket Club, where I purvey the deadliest half-tracker in Kent whilst playing for the Merlins, a side who now look to give the club's juniors their first experience of adult cricket. I'm a keen golfer, albeit relatively undistinguished (there's a pattern here), though threatening a degree of competency, acquiring a handicap of 15 in 2009.

While the body still holds together (in the widest sense of the definition) I'll keep playing sports, and seem likely to remain involved with "the beautiful game" for many years.