With the appointment of Anthony Fry as the new chairman of the Barclays Premier League, English football is now headed by a trio of Manchester United supporters. Fry is described as a ‘keen spectator’ at Old Trafford, whatever that means (perhaps that is how fans were described at his alma mater of Magdalen College, Oxford).
With the appointment of Anthony Fry as the new chairman of the Barclays Premier League, English football is now headed by a trio of Manchester United supporters. Fry is described as a ‘keen spectator’ at Old Trafford, whatever that means (perhaps that is how fans were described at his alma mater of Magdalen College, Oxford).
He did, however, pitch the idea of BSkyB taking over Manchester United to their board in 1998. The potential conflict of interest was too much for the competition authorities and the then Monopolies Commission blocked it in 1999.
Greg Dyke, who will take over as FA chairman in the summer, is also a United supporter. He was the only United director at the time to vote against the BSkyB takeover. United’s chief executive David Gill is FA vice-chairman and has hopes of being elected to the Uefa executive committee.
Anthony Fry’s appointment has been criticised on Twitter by football journalist David Conn given that his whole career has been spent in corporate finance with a specialisation in the media industry, but this indignation seems to a bit feigned to me. After all, it is the Barclays Premier League and the competition has been built on an unambiguous business model.
The Premier League statement makes it clear that what they were interested in was someone who could develop effective working relationships with the executive and member clubs. The absence of any reference to fans is an arguably more telling criticism, but they have not been central to the Premier League model for some time.
Historically, the chairman’s job has been one of outreach in a diplomatic and ambassadorial role, but Fry may be asked to take on a bigger role in running what is now a business generating nearly £2bn a year. His experience of deal-mamking in media and public utilities may be seen as useful as the Premiership embarks on a programme of tighter cost controls.