YOUTH football team founder and former Poole Town Football Club chairman, Graham Dexter, has died aged 65.

Born in London as only child, Graham moved with his family to Dorset in the early years of his life.

He came onto the board at Poole Town in 1974, having established himself in the area as the owner of a sports shop and then the founder of Dexter Sports YFC, which continues to run today.

At the age of 27, Graham was elected as the chairman of Poole Town alongside Chris Reeves as vice-chairman, making them the youngest chairman and vice-chairman in charge of a senior football club in the UK.

The men went on to swap roles to allow Graham to work as the club's commercial manager, which saw him successfully run a scratch card scheme to bring money into the firm, while allowing the fans to win a prize of £1,000.

Together with long-serving Dolphins legend, Roger Bazeley, who served as the manager, the men ran the club during many successful league campaigns, including three trips to Italy in the Anglo Italian Cup featuring live on the Italian sports channel in the 1982 final.

The team got to the first round of the FA cup with a huge crowd of fans attending the stadium to see a 0-0 draw with Newport.

Chris said that they had a host of prestigious friendlies against WBA, Manchester Utd, Manchester City, Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, Birmingham City and others. Graham went on to be involved with the club until the mid-1990s.

In relation to his youth football club, Dexter Sports YFC was founded in 1975 to allow young football fans in Poole to take part in the sport outside of school. It has grown to become an FA Charter Standard Club working with young people aged from four to 16.

Aside from his huge passion for football, Graham was a family man and enjoyed spending time with his son, Matthew, and daughter, Sarah, as well as his four grandchildren. His daughter, Sarah, described him as a 'larger-than-life' character who loved to take her and her brother for trips out to various places as children.

Graham retired to Spain due to ill-health but returned back to the UK to be close to his family and friends. He died suddenly on Tuesday, October 18.