Queen's Birthday Honours: Champion manager Ferguson knighted

Sport

ALEX FERGUSON, the Manchester United manager whose team won the Premier League, FA Cup and European Cup last month, a treble unprecedented in England, heads the list of sporting figures recognised in today's honours list. The 57-year-old Scot receives a knighthood for his services to association football.

He was born in Govan, Glasgow, and worked in a shipyard before starting a playing career with Queen's Park in 1960. After breaking the Old Firm duopoly as manager of Aberdeen, he took over at Manchester United in 1986. The club has won 12 major trophies since. The European Cup triumph was the club's second. Matt Busby led the side to victory in 1968 and was subsequently knighted.

Scotland's national football coach, Craig Brown, is appointed CBE, while Tony Adams, Arsenal defender and former England captain who is a recovering alcoholic, and Robbie Earle, the Jamaican international and Wimbledon midfielder, are appointed MBEs. Garth Crooks, former Tottenham Hotspur player and ex-chairman of the Professional Footballers' Association, is made OBE for services to the Institute of Professional Sport. Gregor Townsend, the Scottish rugby union international, is appointed MBE, while David Moorcroft, chief executive of UK Athletics and former 5,000m world record-holder, is appointed OBE.

Iwan Thomas, the Welsh 400m runner who claimed three gold medals in six weeks at championships last summer, is appointed MBE.

In judo, Kate Howey, the only British woman to win a world title in any Olympic sport last year, is appointed MBE. Janette Brittin, who has retired after being England's most- capped female cricketer, is appointed MBE.