Eight months after EPL CEO Richard Scudamore announced his plan to resign, the league "appears no closer to naming a permanent successor," according to Joshua Robinson of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. The EPL is "staring at a dearth of qualified candidates and running its search months beyond its original deadline." Several factors have made the search "more complicated than expected." The eventual hire will be "stepping into the long shadow cast by Scudamore," while the new CEO also "must smooth over growing tension between the clubs’ 20 owners, read the changing media landscape, navigate the uncertainty of Brexit, and maintain the profitability the league is accustomed to." The hunt "remains so secretive that several chairmen confess to being completely in the dark over it." The search committee recently "appeared to expand its list of potential successors beyond the world of television." Sources said that the EPL was "due to meet with Gary Verity, whose sports administration resume includes overseeing the Tour de Yorkshire bike race and bringing the start of the 2014 Tour de France to Britain." One criticism leveled at the league was that it "wasn’t prepared to offer a salary to match the scope of the job." Meanwhile, the public intrigue "surrounding a deliberately private job has exposed to the league to more attention than it is used to" (WSJ.com, 2/7).
