Ed's leaving the Turf

Last updated : 08 February 2006 By Tony Scholes
At the end of next week the club’s Marketing & Communications Manager, Edoardo (Ed) Abis, will be heading south to a new role in London after being with the Clarets for over six years, coming in initially to assist with the club’s web site having previously worked for Subnet the company who run the site for the club.

He’s moved on from that and in his early days at Turf Moor he spent time assisting the club’s Official Spell Checker Danee Roobinn, but when Rouhbin left Ed took over from him leading to his current role at Turf Moor.

That all changes next week as he heads to the capital to work for the company Reward, a company run by the son of Arsenal chairman David Dein, and in his new marketing role for them he will be dealing with a number of football clubs including Burnley.

What can we say about Ed? Starting from the very beginning, he was born in Sardinia around the time that the brilliant Luigi Riva was exciting the crowds at the local football club Cagliari.

There’s no truth in the rumours that his dad was heavily involved with the mafia but Ed was soon to be uprooted and he was brought up in another exotic location, namely Colne. That’s how he comes to be a Claret, and that’s how he has an English accent that seems well at home in north east Lancashire.

He speaks Italian fluently and whilst Burnley were fighting their way out of the lower divisions in the 1990s, the now committed Claret was back in his place of birth serving in the Italian army.

Now the image of the Italian army for me is of tanks with reverse gears only and Captain Bertorelli from Allo Allo, so it was a shock to learn that Ed had served his national service with such an organisation, where he reached the rank of corporal. Once back in Civvy Street he headed back to these shores and immediately started work with Nelson based company Subnet in a role that led him to his current position at Turf Moor.

It’s time for him to move on now, but I can’t let him do that without sending him my best wishes, both personally and on behalf of Clarets Mad. Most visitors to this site will not be aware of just how much help Ed has been to me over the last few years although at times we have had our disagreements.

More than once I’ve drawn the Italian temperament from him and it is fair to say we’ve had our arguments, slammed telephones down on each other, and there have certainly been raised voices. At times some of the language was hardly acceptable even past the 9 o’clock watershed, usually from me.

Despite all that we have become good friends, and without his help it would have been a lot more difficult for me with both a number of projects he has helped me with and also the general running of the site.

All the best Ed in your new role, and I’m sure I’ll see you soon taking in a Burnley game, after all, once a Claret, always a Claret. It’s just that I can’t get the image out of my head now of you as Captain Bertorelli.