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Paul Johnston

Ambassador to Ireland

Part of UK in Sweden

15th November 2012

Meeting new friends at the Friends Arena

Every once in a while you have one of those moments you know you’ll remember for a long time. Hearing Simon and Garfunkel in Hyde Park, or Elton John in Madison Square Garden are two musical examples. In football, I will never forget being in the Stade de France when my school mate John Collins scored a goal for Scotland against Brazil in the opening match of the 1998 World Cup.

And I will not forget in hurry last night’s match at the new Friends Arena, the great Steven Gerrard’s 100th cap and Zlatan’s last goal in particular.

Others, I hope, will have special memories from the week as well. That will certainly include 20 teenagers from Fryshuset, who got the chance to meet the England team the night before the game.

We have worked with Fryshuset on several occasions before, most recently during the visit of HRH Prince of Wales and HRH Duchess of Cornwall to Sweden in March this year.  I’m delighted that we could offer these youths such a special opportunity this week.

Fryshuset makes a huge difference in many people’s lives every day, especially through their work with children in the field of sports and music, and the way they help combat racism in society through their different programmes and projects.

The young fans were very impressed by the new Friends Arena, and so was I.  It was built with the support of several UK suppliers, was filled virtually to its 50,000 spectator maximum  on match night, including 1,867 England fans who had travelled to Sweden for the game.

Travelling football fans are a growing group.  6% of Swedes travelling to the UK every year are football tourists.  That makes 48,000 Swedes visiting the UK mainly to watch Premier League football (with perhaps just a few pub and shop visits thrown in!) every year.  If the games they see are half as good as last night, they’ll be lucky indeed!

About Paul Johnston

Paul Johnston joined the UK Civil Service in 1990, working for the Ministry of Defence initially. He has served in Paris and New York and has also had a wide…

Paul Johnston joined the UK Civil Service in 1990, working for the Ministry of Defence initially.

He has served in Paris and New York and has also had a wide range of political and security roles in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. Paul joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1993 as Desk Officer for Bosnia. As part of this role he was also Private Secretary to EU negotiator Lord Owen and his representative on Bosnia Contact Group.

His first foreign posting was to Paris in 1995-99 as Second Secretary Political. He was Private Secretary to the Ambassador and latterly part of the UK delegation to the Kosovo Rambouillet negotiations. Then he returned to London as Head of the Kosovo Policy Team, leading work on post-conflict policy in the EU, NATO, UN and G8.

Before his second overseas posting to New York in 2005, Paul held a variety of other EU policy and security appointments in London, such as Head of European Defence Section between 2000-01 and Head of Security Policy Department between 2002-04.

As Head of the Political Section in UKMIS New York, he advised on major policy issues for the UK on the Security Council and the UN World Summit, including the UK EU Presidency in 2005.

Paul returned to London in 2008 as Director, International Security for the FCO. He was responsible for policy on UN, NATO, European Security, arms control and disarmament, human rights and good governance.

Paul was British Ambassador to Sweden from August 2011 to August 2015 and then was Deputy Permanent Representative to NATO.

He was UK Ambassador to the EU for Political and Security affairs from 2017 to January 2020 and became Ambassador to Ireland in September 2020.

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football Friends Arena Fryshuset Sport Sweden vs England