Richard Scudamore

Richard Scudamore
Born	Richard Craig Scudamore (1959-08-11) 11 August 1959 Bristol, England
Nationality	British
Education	Kingsfield School
Alma mater	University of Nottingham
Occupation	Chief executive, Premier League
Salary	£900,000 (£2.5 million with bonuses)[1]
Spouse(s)	Catherine
Children	5

Richard Craig Scudamore (born 11 August 1959) is the Chief Executive of the highest tier of association football in England, the Premier League, a position he has held since November 1999.

Biography

Scudamore attended Kingsfield School in Kingswood, Bristol, where he was Head Boy in his final year and which he left in 1977. He studied law at the University of Nottingham but never went on to qualify or practice law. He then spent nine years at Yellow Pages, a division of British Telecom, progressing through sales and marketing, business planning and regional management to the position of Sales Director.^[2]

Newspaper career

Scudamore worked for 10 years in the newspaper industry, mainly for Thomson. He joined them as Group Advertising Director but went on to spend his last three years with the Thomson Corporation in the US as Senior Vice President responsible for all their newspaper operations in the southern and eastern United States.

Premier League

Scudamore was appointed CEO of the Premier League in November 1999, and is reputed to earn in excess of £800,000 per annum.^[3] Scudamore is responsible for negotiating broadcasting and sponsorship contracts worth in excess of £3.5 billion. He is also a founding board member of the Football Foundation, overseeing more than £200 million of Premier League contributions to the grassroots football charity. These roles followed a two-year period as Chief Executive of the Football League - responsible for the other 72 professional clubs outside the Premier League. The total value of British Premier League television rights negotiated under Scudamore have risen from £1.2 billion for the 2001-04 season to £3.018 billion for the 2013-16 season.^[4] This has seen an average cost paid by broadcasters per game rise from £2.79 million to £6.53 million.^[4]

In 2008 Scudamore, along with the 20 Premier League club chairmen, opted to explore the opportunity of Premier League clubs playing one additional league match per season overseas. However, following a significant amount of criticism from fans, the media and other football administrators including Sepp Blatter, the Premier League dropped the idea and have said several times since that there are no plans to reconsider it.^[5]

Scudamore has also overseen the international commercial expansion of the Premier League, describing the "exponential growth" of the league's audience and revenue in India, and has stated that football is India's fastest growing sport.^[6] In the Middle East and North Africa region Scudamore said the Premier League's games would be distributed in a "comprehensive and innovative manner" by agency MP & Silva.^[7] Scudamore said of foreign expansion that "...as long as the football remains compelling then I don't see any reason why the world won't want to continue to watch us." Scudamore has also described the Premier League as an "iconic British business" and described it as "a big and important economic entity" for the UK.^[8]

On the financial viability of Premier League clubs, Scudamore has said that the "majority of clubs are within sensible percentages" regarding their ratios of income spent on wages and said it is a "stable situation".^[8] Scudamore has said that he wishes clubs to live "within their means" and was in favour of improving the financial regulation of clubs in light of UEFA's Financial Fair Play Regulations, claiming in November 2012 that "If clubs are going to make a loss then we need to check if that is sustainable and if their owners have a long-term vision. Our biggest responsibility is to make sure that clubs are run sustainably for the long term."^[8] The Premier League subsequently introduced enhanced financial regulations in February 2013, Scudamore said of the new rules impact on clubs that they would "...further benefit the sustainable running of their businesses, while allowing secure owner investment, as well as enhance the reputation of the Premier League as an organisation that takes its responsibilities in the governance arena seriously."^[9]

On 7 November 2013, Scudamore was awarded the 'Outstanding Contribution to Football' Award at the Football Business Awards ^[10]

Leak of private emails

In May 2014, emails written by Scudamore were leaked by a former temporary PA to the Sunday Mirror.^[11] The former PA said that Scudamore had “no respect for women,” and said that she found the emails "...highly offensive...I have worked for very professional organisations and never seen anything like it. That’s why it shocked me."^[12] Scudamore immediately apologised and said that the emails were "...an error of judgment that I will not make again",^[13] also saying that they were "private emails exchanged between colleagues and friends of many years".^[13] A Premier League source told The Mirror that "Richard realises his comments were inappropriate and wrong." and that his "commitment to the equality agenda and anti-discrimination is writ large".^[12]

In the emails Scudamore wrote that “You will learn over time that female irrationality increases exponentially depending on how many members join your family. That should keep you within the Chinese government’s one child per family enforcement rules. Very clever those Chinese.”^[12] Scudamore also replied to a lawyer friend who joked about spending "...all day fending Edna off my graphite shaft", that his friend "...Must keep her off your shaft...graphite, sausage meat or flimsy sponge."^[12] A source said the pair were referring to golf clubs,^[12] and the subject of those emails, Peta Bistany, admitted that she was not at all offended and had in fact been the instigator of the banter.^[14] Scudamore also forwarded an email from the football executive and businessman David Dein^[15] called a "Male Fairy Tale", which read “Once upon a time a Prince asked a beautiful Princess, “Will you marry me?” The Princess said, “No!” And the Prince lived happily ever after and rode motorcycles and banged skinny big titted broads...”^[12]

The emails were condemned by MPs Tracey Crouch and Gloria de Piero. Crouch, a qualified football coach and manager of a girl's football team said that "It's disappointing at a time when he’s trying to encourage more women to play football that he is using derogatory terminology like this....it’s important that somebody who is promoting the women’s game shouldn’t be using this sort of language.”^[12] The emails were also criticised by Helen Grant, the Minister for Sport and the Olympics, Greg Dyke, the chairman of the Football Association, and Barclays, the Premier League title sponsor.^[13] The England women's national football team goalkeeper Rachel Brown-Finnis called the emails an "insult to all women".^[6]

Defence of Richard Scudamore has come from the likes of former FA chief executive Ian Watmore, who tweeted "Met loads of misogynists in football, Richard Scudamore not one of them. Helped me unblock opposition to FA Women’s Super League."^[16] The prominent journalist Martin Samuel also claimed that Greg Dyke and chair of the FA’s inclusion advisory board Heather Rabbatts sent private texts of support to Richard Scudamore, before publicly condemning him for political purposes.^[16]

Personal life

Scudamore is married to Catherine and has five children: Jamie, Chloe, Patrick, Ned and Lara.^[17]

A qualified level 5 referee, Scudamore is a lifetime Bristol City F.C. fan.^[18][19]

References