EPL Clubs Consider Making Tony Blair The League's Next Chair

Tony Blair has been mentioned as a candidate to become the EPL's chair.GETTY IMAGES

Former U.K. PM Tony Blair "is the intriguing name that was mentioned" as a possible next chair of the Premier League during informal discussions at the last clubs’ meeting, according to Charles Sale of the London DAILY MAIL. Football "has never seemed one of Blair’s great passions despite his claims to be a Newcastle fan." And "even that was subject to ridicule when it was misreported that he had claimed to have watched Jackie Milburn" at St. James' Park while sitting in the Gallowgate End. Yet Blair, who left office in '07 after 10 years as PM, "certainly has enough charisma and natural authority to keep order among the 20 top-flight clubs." Other names being floated for chair or CEO are former BT CEO Gavin Patterson and Sky Sports Managing Dir Barney Francis. But it is "considered unlikely" that the nominations panel, led by Chelsea’s Bruce Buck, would want to "risk alienating" other rightsholders (DAILY MAIL, 9/18).