Stafford Heginbotham (12 September 1933 – 21 April 1995) was a British businessman who was chairman of Bradford City football club at the time when 56 people died in the Bradford City stadium fire. The fire occurred immediately after the club won league promotion, which mandated a costly upgrading of spectator facilities. A book published in 2015 revealed the extent of Heginbotham's fire insurance claims before the disaster, which had led to him being the subject of local innuendo about arson. In the light of the book's revelations, the former head of the public inquiry into the disaster maintained that there was still no reason to think there had been anything sinister about the fire, although he acknowledged that Heginbotham's serial insurance claims were cause for suspicion.

In the mid-1950s Heginbotham worked as a salesman for a soft furnishings company, and by the age of 24 he was regarded as the firm's best salesman. He married Lorna Silverwood and had two sons. Heginbotham created the "Stafford Heginbotham Castle Trophy Highest Aggregate Wickets" in the Bradford Cricket League.

In 1971 Heginbotham set up the Bradford-based company Tebro Toys. Six years later the Bradford Telegraph & Argus quoted Heginbotham as saying "I have just been unlucky" after the business suffered two major fires in succession. One was found to have been started by children. Heginbotham claimed the equivalent of £3 million for the destruction of the premises and a large amount of stock just before Christmas. He did not use the insurance proceeds to reopen the business, despite Bradford City Council's attempts to save the company and a proposed merger with a Welsh-based toy company. It is a matter of dispute how seriously innuendo about Heginbotham being a serial arsonist and insurance fraudster was meant, but when Bradford businessmen in the 1970s saw smoke in the sky they joked "That will be one of Stafford's."

Heginbotham became chairman of Bradford City A.F.C., where he was a popular figure. The "City Gent", the official mascot for the club introduced by Heginbotham in 1966, was modelled on him. He is credited with saying that "Football is the opera of the people." Former player John Hendrie recalled that: "We all lived in each other's pockets back then. Stafford Heginbotham would come in the dressing room before a game and offer us £200 for a few drinks that night if we won. We wouldn't see him again until 2.50pm the following week and he'd make it double or quits. Looking at his 'syrup' [wig], we'd always ask when he was going to pay (toupee) – it would go straight over his head!"

In his autobiography, The Real McCall, former player Stuart McCall wrote of agreeing a tax-free payment with Stafford Heginbotham that was not honoured by Jack Tordoff. McCall took the club to the Football League and, after a second hearing, won his case. Speaking about the issue, Jack Tordoff stated: "Stuart was very close to Stafford Heginbotham, and he and Stuart arranged a deal while they were on a club end-of-season holiday. Stuart signed a three-year contract, but Stafford promised him privately that if we didn't get promotion he could leave the club. Stafford also promised him a signing-on fee of £50,000, and that went into his contract, but Stafford didn't tell the board that this sum was tax-free. At the end of the season we allowed Stuart to break his contract and leave for Everton to further his career because a promise had been made to him. Stuart took us to a tribunal. The tribunal ruled in favour of the club, but Stuart appealed against this decision and got Stafford to go with him. Stafford told the tribunal he had promised a tax-free payment to Stuart so the club paid up on the same day."

In the penultimate game of the 1984–85 season the club had secured promotion to Division Two, thereby making the replacement of existing spectator terracing, which dated from 1911, a necessary expense under safety regulations. Heginbotham received an estimate of £2 million for the construction of a new stand. According to Martin Fletcher, Heginbotham lacked the financial resources to pay for new terracing, and was at that time having difficulty meeting the wage bill and running costs at the club.

Just before half time in the final game of the season a fire started at one end of the stand that would have to be replaced. The wooden structure was quickly ablaze. Heat and thick smoke meant that spectators had only minutes to escape. Half of the 56 people who died in the blaze were either under 20 or over 70 years old. Hundreds were injured, and many of the survivors required plastic surgery.

Interviewed immediately afterwards, Heginbotham, who had been in the director's box about 50 yards away from where the fire started, said that he thought two flares or smoke bombs had gone off shortly before. The wooden stand had been used for decades and hundreds of supporters smoked cigarettes or pipes. An inquiry allegedly heard from a man and his nephew who had been seated near the apparent origin of the blaze, and concluded that a lit cigarette had fallen through gaps in the floor and ignited accumulated paper rubbish, although there was no testimony suggesting who could have been responsible.