1. John Ian Porterfield was a Scottish professional footballer, and an experienced football coach who worked at both club and international level for almost 30 years.
16 Facts About Ian Porterfield
1. 2.
Ian Porterfield was the first manager to be sacked in the FA Premier League era, when he was fired by Chelsea.
3.
Ian Porterfield had earlier succeeded Alex Ferguson as manager of Aberdeen in 1986.
4.
At the age of 15, the Dunfermline-born Ian Porterfield had a trial for Leeds United but returned, homesick, to Scotland where he joined Raith Rovers.
5.
Ian Porterfield stayed at Sunderland for ten years, with a brief loan spell at Reading in 1976, before moving on to Sheffield Wednesday in July 1977, first as a player and then as player-coach.
6.
Ian Porterfield was inducted in to the Raith Rovers Hall of Fame in 2018.
7.
Ian Porterfield was given the task of getting the Blades, newly relegated to the Fourth Division back into the First Division in five seasons with a long-term contract exceeding that particular time-frame.
8.
Ian Porterfield was unable to complete the final step into the First Division and finally paid the price being replaced by Billy McEwan on 27 March 1986.
9.
In October 1989, Ian Porterfield was named manager of Third Division side Reading but was sacked 18 months later, having failed to mount a promotion challenge.
10.
However, the good form had gone by Christmas and Ian Porterfield was dismissed on 15 February 1993 after 12 games without a win, gaining the distinction of being the first manager to be sacked by a Premier League club.
11.
Ian Porterfield was named manager of the Zambia in the summer of 1993 and later managed Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe, all very much developing countries on the football map.
12.
Ian Porterfield was given the task of rebuilding the Zambian team following a tragic air crash in 1993 that claimed the lives of many of the nation's most gifted players.
13.
The club had been rooted to the bottom of the table for the most part of the season and Bolton's new manager Colin Todd was looking to his former Sunderland teammate Ian Porterfield to assist an unlikely escape from relegation, but survival was not achieved.
14.
Ian Porterfield led the latter to the Caribbean Cup in 2001 before leaving in June 2001.
15.
Ian Porterfield signed a contract to coach the Armenia national football team in August 2006.
16.
Ian Porterfield died, aged 61, on 11 September 2007, as a result of colon cancer, which had been diagnosed earlier that year.