Football League's New Chairman: Greg Clarke Views

[QPR Report]

Ooopps I'm starting a new thread...Oh well next time!

Football League - Football League Chairman
Posted on: Fri 12 Mar 2010

GREG CLARKE TO SUCCEED LORD MAWHINNEY AS CHAIRMAN OF THE FOOTBALL LEAGUE

Former Cable & Wireless Communications PLC Chief Executive to lead World's original league

Greg Clarke, the former Chief Executive of Cable & Wireless Communications PLC, has been appointed by the Board of The Football League to succeed Lord Mawhinney as its Chairman.

The appointment of Mr. Clarke, 52, was formally ratified at The League's Board meeting on Thursday 11th March.
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In recognition of his outstanding leadership and positive impact at The League during the last seven years, the Board also agreed to recommend to clubs (at their March meeting) that Lord Mawhinney is made Honorary President of The Football League.

Independent Board member Ian Ritchie who led the appointment process, said: "Greg Clarke was the clear choice of the Board to become the new Chairman of The Football League.

"Greg's business experience speaks for itself. He has led multinational companies, including Cable & Wireless, and has sat on the Board of reputed organisations such as Bupa.

"Greg will build on the substantial progress made by Lord Mawhinney, focusing on further improving League football's professionalism and business structure, as well as maintaining the momentum on good governance.

In short, he will aim to make The League even more effective on behalf of all its clubs."

Greg Clarke said: "I am honoured to be taking up the position of Chairman of The Football League. As a lifelong and committed football fan it is a privilege to serve the game in this capacity.

"My time at Leicester City provided an insight into the challenges clubs face on a daily basis. The lessons learnt from that experience will not be forgotten.

"I look forward to joining a highly successful organisation whose clubs are at the heart of their communities. I intend to build on The League's recent successes and represent all our 72 clubs."

Greg Clarke will spend the next few weeks meeting League and club officials. His official starting date will be announced in the near future.

www.herefordunited.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10835~1992107,00.html

[QPR Report]

Guardian/Matt Scott

Greg Clarke arrives with vision of transparency for Football League• Mawhinney's successor at Football League unveiled
• Warns clubs must be wary of 'brutal' financial future
Friday 12 March 2010

Leeds United could be obliged to make public the identity of their offshore-registered owner before the start of next season. That will be the outcome if the Football League's incoming chairman, Greg Clarke, successfully implements his ambitious transparency drive.

Clarke was today revealed as the successor to Lord Mawhinney, whose eight-year tenure expires this month. Clarke, who is 52, joins the League after 14 years as chief executive of multinationals including Cable & Wireless and Lend Lease, the Australian conglomerate from which he returned to the UK this year.

He has already held a series of meetings with the league's management team and in his first address to the media Clarke was forthright about his belief that governance must constantly be improved. "I have a propensity to think that transparency is a wonderful thing," he said. "When you see countries and companies who are not transparent, terrible things happen.

"When five to 10 clubs have serious trouble because they have not thought through how to handle the downside it is a problem. The highest priority is to ensure clubs are transparent and financially viable. That will include clubs stating who owns them. I understand we won't get there tomorrow but we should be in a position to do it as soon as possible."

Clarke's ambitions are in that respect no different from Lord Mawhinney's. However, he comes into the role in a deteriorating financial climate and believes fears of future hardship present an opportunity to persuade clubs to support tighter regulation. "The country is in for a brutal five to 10 years," said Clarke. "Most spending on football clubs is discretionary. It would be irresponsible of me to allow people to relax; we need people to think about what they have to do if things go wrong. It is very important that as many clubs as possible get through these tough five to 10 years."

Yet he is also canny enough to recognise that for certain owners, financial difficulty will be seen as a motivation to oppose his transparency measures. In an environment where the clubs must themselves vote for the regulations that govern them, the key will be to win favour among the majority, overriding the objectors.

"Some of the club owners will be bleeding £5m to £10m a year and me preaching transparency when they could lose their house is not what they want to hear," he said. "But it's the art of the possible. It's about convincing people. And I'll treat all Football League chairmen with respect for their views. People will bitterly resent oversight of their financial affairs. But you have to convince people that it is in the long-term interests of the clubs."

Clarke will not merely sermonise, though, and he set the example for his plans to run clubs more openly with an honest response to the question about what he will earn as the league chairman. "£150,000 a year for a three-day week," he said. "But I'll be working six."

That alone may not be enough to persuade awkward chairmen to vote for the introduction to more stringent rules. But where Clarke may have a bridgehead in that battle is that he has himself lost money in keeping a club afloat. Having grown up on a council estate in Leicester he became chairman of Leicester City following their relegation in 2002. As he restructured the insolvent club for a consortium involving Gary Lineker and his agent, Jon Holmes, Clarke personally lost £500,000.

"We made lots of mistakes at Leicester and I have learnt from them," he said. "I understand what people running clubs are going through. I understand when the manager wants to play the on-loan striker but you have to say no, because you can't afford the loan fee."

Clarke envisages that he will be in the post at Gloucester Place for the long haul. "I'll be here as long as the league board wants me," he said. "This is such a good job, why would I ever want to leave it?"

www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/mar/12/greg-clarke-football-league1

[QPR Report]

The Times -
New Football League chairman Greg Clarke warns of 'brutal' future for its members
Nick Szczepanik


It is a sure sign of the difficult economic times that the Football League has replaced a politician as chairman with a hard-headed businessman.

Greg Clarke, who was named on Friday as the successor to Brian Mawhinney, warned of “a brutal five to ten years” and sees his main task as making sure that all 72 league clubs survive.

Clarke, 52, who was head-hunted by the League, has been chief executive of companies in the UK and abroad, including Cable & Wireless, and has been on the board of Bupa. A lifelong supporter of Leicester City who sold programmes to afford the admission, he is also a former chairman who lost £500,000 when the club entered administration in 2002 before coming out with the help of a consortium that he formed along with Gary Lineker.

“We have to make sure that people running the clubs assume there is a little more pain down the road,” he said. “I can’t tell these people what they should be doing and take the moral high ground, but I’ve been in their shoes and I know what it’s like to struggle to pay the wage bill.”

But although Clarke promises to use his financial knowledge to help clubs to face the financial issues that may lie ahead, he also believes in “clean running, good governance and transparency” — key issues bearing in mind that Portsmouth are likely to crash-land in the League next season, with the true state of their financial problems only now coming fully to light. “Scrutiny keeps everybody honest, so I have a propensity towards more and more transparency in the game,” he said.

Clarke demonstrated his belief in transparency by revealing that his job pays £150,000 for a three-day week. However, he has freed himself of all immediate commitments and expects to work “five or six days a week” when he takes up his post, which is expected to happen before Easter.

“Twenty million blokes in this country would kill for this job,” he said.

www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article7059809.ece