Gary Hoffman leaves an impossible Premier League job behind

Gary Hoffman has left the Premier League after 18 months as chairman; he could never have predicted that things would play out like this.

So farewell then, Gary Hoffman. It’s been a bruising 18 months for the now former chairman of the Premier League, but is he a victim of circumstances that he had no hope of ever controlling? Or was the current state of disharmony within the organisation his responsibility? The obvious conclusion to reach from his departure is that it’s connected to the Premier League’s decision to wave through the Saudi takeover of Newcastle United, but the noises emanating from those in the know would seem to indicate that it’s not quite as simple as that.

Reports suggest that there is pretty much unanimity among clubs that Hoffman couldn’t have done much by himself to prevent the takeover being approved. Instead, it’s considered that the big issue over this was the league’s communication with clubs over the matter, which leads us to the conclusion that his departure shortly after this all happening is more likely a case of the straw breaking the camel’s back, rather than the takeover approval being the deciding factor.

Hoffman had been in his position for a year and a half, and it’s fair to say that his timing could scarcely have been more contentious. Over the course of that time, he had to deal with the pandemic and its effects, Project Big Picture and the fallout, then the European Super League fiasco, all on top of the Newcastle takeover. It’s been a lot to pack into a relatively short period of time.

The travails of the Premier League over the last couple of years or so have demonstrated the value of strong leadership. Richard Scudamore, who stepped down as both its chairman and chief executive, ruled that particular roost for ages, and while he might not necessarily have been everybody’s cup of tea, he was at least proven and had managed to keep a semblance of order between a group of clubs who seldom have a huge amount in common other than a desire for the greater accumulation of money. His departure certainly seems to have left a space at the top of the organisation that has proved difficult to fill.

The challenges that Hoffman has faced have been of a magnitude that few would have predicted. The pandemic was a wholly unexpected event, and when he was appointed in April 2020 this country was only just starting to understand the scale of the crisis we were entering into. The Premier League had many conflicting interests to deal with, in particular balancing the external pressure to keep playing with the necessary precautions required to try and control the pandemic. The Premier League did eventually play on, behind closed doors and with every match shown live. It felt dystopian at times, watching endless nights of football in front of empty, echoing stands, but the league got through it.

And then, of course, there’s the discussion of the reshaping of the game that has been ongoing on for some time, but which seems to have reached something approaching critical mass since the pandemic. The European Super League has rather eclipsed Project Big Picture in our collective memory, but its impact would be much better remembered were it not for what happened a few months later. This attempted land grab, which would have handed control of the Premier League to its biggest clubs, was roundly condemned almost as soon as it was made public as an opportunist move on the part of the very biggest clubs, with promises of ready cash to financially-stricken smaller clubs in return for perpetual control of the game.

The European Super League certainly puts all of this into the shade, with an outpouring of anger and disapproval hitherto unseen. Protests were held outside the grounds of the clubs that had signed up for it, so forceful that they even caused the cancellation and rescheduling of a match – and not just any match. Manchester United vs Liverpool is usually a shot heard around the world, but when protesting supporters got inside Old Trafford before kick-off, the match was called off. It can already feel at times as though this has been half-forgotten.

The new chair of the Premier League will step into an environment which demands inclusivity but still feels increasingly at war with itself. The results of the fan-led review into the governance of the game will be published in full soon, and there is a possibility that an independent regulator, which both the Premier League and the EFL have long opposed, will eventually be appointed. But it’s not all bad news. The result of the bidding battle over North American television rights is also due, and this could turn out to be good news for its clubs, with some analysts predicting that their value could double with the new contract. For all the disagreements that exist between Premier League clubs, the one thing they can agree on is that they sure love money, so this announcement is likely be good news for them.

Add this to the fallout from the Newcastle takeover and continuing talk of the European Super League, and it becomes easy to see that the next chair of the Premier League will certainly have their work cut out. CEO Richard Masters will continue to take control of the day-to-day operations of the league, but even in a non-executive role, the new chairman will be thrown in at the deep end. Hoffman came into an extremely difficult job at an extremely difficult time; perhaps it was always inevitable that it would end up this way. If his successor can tame the conflicting interests of the 20 Premier League clubs, they’ll have achieved something that few even believe to be possible at the moment.