This won't make them happy at all
Row brewing over Liverpool and Manchester United's involvement in Premier League chief executive search
Rivals of the two most successful teams in English football are concerned they had an 'unofficial veto' during recruitment process
Premier League rivals of Liverpool and Manchester United are understood to be concerned by claims the two clubs had an "unofficial veto" of the recruitment process for the top tier's new chief executive.
Executives at runaway league leaders Liverpool and United were kept in close contact during the process that eventually led to Richard Masters being hired, the New York Times reports.
The club are said to deny suggestions they had "unilateral power to decline a candidate", but it is claimed at least one of the frontrunners for the job, Dave Howe of NBC Universal, was introduced to both Liverpool's Tom Werner and Ed Woodward of Manchester United.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/02/10/row-brewing-liverpool-manchester-uniteds-involvement-premier/From the NYT article
(Dave) Howe impressed the nominating committee — then made up of Bruce Buck, the chairman of Chelsea; Burnley’s chief executive, Mike Garlick; and Leicester City’s chief executive, Susan Whelan — and was told the job was his. Presented with details of the financial package he could expect, terms he was said to have found agreeable, there was just one final hoop to jump through: an informal meeting with representatives from Liverpool and Manchester United.
Howe met with Liverpool’s Werner and Ed Woodward, Manchester United’s executive vice chairman, and another Premier League executive in May. They discussed his vision for the future of the league, and what he saw as its most pressing challenges. Howe told associates that the meeting went well. Liverpool’s feedback to Buck, the head of the nominating committee, was positive.
Soon after, though, the headhunting firm working on the search, Spencer Stuart, was told to inform Howe that the Premier League would be looking elsewhere. No specific explanation for the change of course was offered — Howe, like Dinnage, has made no public comment — and Spencer Stuart was later replaced by another search firm.
To those tracking the search, though, it appeared that Liverpool and United had been offered an unofficial veto on the nominating committee’s choice. That is not how either Liverpool or United saw it: Executives at both insisted they did not believe they had unilateral power to decline a candidate.
The special treatment dispensed to Liverpool and United, though, did not go unnoticed by other teams. Though the Big Six clubs are rivals on the field, they often act in concert off it, sometimes meeting privately to discuss strategy related to board proposals or rules changes.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/09/sports/soccer/premier-league-ceo.html?searchResultPosition=1
