Educated at Malvern College, one of the country’s best football schools in the late sixties, he represented England Under 18 against Scotland at Celtic Park before serving as an administrative officer in the Royal Air Force for five years.

He was on Reading’s books from the age of 16 to 22, but also represented F.A. Amateur XI’s and the R.A.F. while playing mainly in the old Isthmian League for Corinthian Casuals, Dulwich Hamlet and Kingstonian and joining Hereford United and Grantham during R.A.F. postings.

After taking an F.A. Coaching badge he coached at Harrow Borough, Epsom & Ewell and Hungerford Town and was asked to edit Jimmy Hill’s Football Weekly after initial experience with the Amateur Footballer. Monthly Soccer and Sportsweek followed before he had the idea for a football Wisden and was helped by The Bagnall Harvey Agency to find a suitable generous sponsor in Rothmans.

After launching the Rothmans Football Yearbook in 1970 as its founder and co-compiler with Roy Peskett, he was asked to join Rothmans (although a non-smoker!) in the company’s public relations department and was soon able to persuade the Marketing Director that Rothmans should become the first ever sponsor of a football league.

After a season’s trial sponsoring the Hellenic and Isthmian Leagues, it was decided to go national with the Northern and Western Leagues and for four years he looked after the football department at Rothmans, with Jimmy Hill and Doug Insole presenting a brilliant sponsorship package which amongst many other innovations included three points for a win and goal difference.

So Non-League football led the way with league sponsorship and two, now well accepted, innovations.
Sportsmanship and goals were also rewarded in a sponsorship that proved a great success for football and for Rothmans. Indeed the sportsmanship incentives could be of great value to-day in the Football Association’s bid to improve the game’s image by ridding the game of dissent and cheating.

After the cigarette company pulled out of their sports sponsorship Tony produced the first Non-League Annual and later The Football League Club Directory, launching ‘Non-League Football’ magazine with “The Mail on Sunday” and then “Team Talk.”

After his ten years with Hungerford Town, he moved West and served Yeovil Town as a Director for seven years but was thrilled when David Emery’s plans for the exciting Non-League Media emerged and came into reality, thus giving the grass roots of the game the publicity and promotion that he and his team had been attempting to set up since the Annual (now Directory) was launched in 1978.

T.W. Publications continues to help promote non-league football throughout the country and is providing information for the exciting ‘Goalrun’ website. The modern history of representative football outside the Football League titled ‘Playing for England’ is being finalised and this season Tony has also been invited to help with the new ‘NonLeagueNews24.com’ website and ‘TheNonLeague24’ magazine as Consultant Editor.

The aim of the company has always been to promote the non-league ‘family,’ its spirit and its general development. So a plaque from The Football Association inscribed ‘To Tony Williams for his continued promotion of all that’s good in football’ was greatly appreciated as was the trophy to commemorate the thirtieth edition of the Directory and the recent GLS “Lifetime Award’ for promoting non-league football.