Conferment of the Honary Freedom of the City upon Gary Lineker OBE

The enabling statute requires a specific procedure to be followed before the Honorary Freedom can be conferred. First, the Honorary Freeman must be “a person of distinction”, or “a person who has…rendered eminent services to the City”; then a special meeting of the City Council has to be convened with the sole object of passing a resolution to confer the honour, and this must be passed by not less than two thirds of the members present. In the case of Mr Lineker, the City Council met on the 26th November 1992 and resolved unanimously to admit him as an Honorary Freeman “in recognition and appreciation of the honour and distinction brought to the City by virtue of his contribution to football at national and international level and his outstanding sportsmanship.”

In addition to Mr Lineker, other recipients have included Earl Haig (1922), Rt Hon Ramsey MacDonald (1929), Archbishop Lang of Canterbury (1935) Baron Janner (1971), and most recently Sir David and Sir Richard (now Lord) Attenborough (1990) and Professor (now sir) Alec Jeffreys (1992).