Lincoln City Chief Executive Officer Liam Scully has been awarded the League One CEO of the Year at the Football Business Awards 2026.
The Imps enjoyed a scintillating campaign on the pitch, storming to the League One title, but the success behind the scenes was equally important.
And that has been rewarded with an award for Scully, as he prepares for life in the second-tier with the Imps for the first time in his lifetime.
Scully arrived at Sincil Bank in 2017, following our National League title win and FA Cup exploits. It was vitally important to seize our return to the EFL, and that wasn’t always about player signings. Having the right structure in the boardroom was as important in continuing our upward progression. Arriving from Doncaster Rovers, he provided just that.
The 40-year-old worked his way up in South Yorkshire, eventually becoming CEO at Club Doncaster Foundation at the start of the last decade. He held the same position at Club Doncaster before moving to the Imps. His LinkedIn profile makes for very interesting reading; Scully has worked in several roles away from Lincoln City in the past decade. Formerly a Non-Executive Director at the Lincolnshire FA for almost five years, he was also a Director at Greater Lincolnshire LEP for a short time.
🤝 Chief executive Liam Scully has highlighted the work of many people of a number of years to lay the foundations for City’s promotion to the Championship.
It takes a village…
— Lincoln City FC 🇺🇦 (@LincolnCity_FC) April 7, 2026
His role also extends into the wider football circle, as the Imps have representation inside the EFL. Being the League One director on the EFL board is a role he will have to step away from at the end of the season, following our promotion out of the division. Nevertheless, he remains chair of EFL In The Community and is a longstanding trustee of the Lincoln City Foundation.
Scully wasn’t able to collect the award in person last week, so Chief Growth and Innovation Officer Jason Futers accepted the award on his behalf.
“It’s fantastic to be here at the Football Business Awards,” Jason said. “I’m very proud to pick up the award on behalf of our CEO, Liam Scully.
“We’ve had a very exciting year. We’re off to the Championship, and being here celebrating the awards is really fantastic.”
Lincoln Looking Ahead
Attention has already turned to preparing for our first Championship campaign in 65 years. One massive advantage of being promoted early is that our planning for next season was able to commence so much sooner than many of our new second-tier rivals. Several clubs will have had an idea that they would remain in the division for much of April, but a handful of teams had their fate confirmed this month.
Likewise, one of Stockport County and Bolton Wanderers, who meet in Sunday’s League One play-off final, will have had almost several weeks fewer to prepare for the new Championship season. The same applies to Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United, with one side set to be relegated from the Premier League this week.