Premier League Vacancy at Top Persists as Another CEO Withdraws

(Bloomberg) -- The Premier League’s newly appointed chief executive officer David Pemsel resigned before taking the job, another blow to finding leadership for the world’s richest soccer league.

The association accepted Pemsel’s resignation following “media disclosures,” and Richard Masters will continue as interim CEO, the top U.K. league said in an emailed statement. Allegations about Pemsel’s personal life were published in the Sun newspaper earlier this week, although that report and others have since been removed.

This is not the first time the league has been thwarted in trying to replace former chief Richard Scudamore. It had appointed Discovery Inc.’s Susanna Dinnage as CEO last year, but she also backed away after initially accepting the role.

Pemsel, outgoing CEO of the Guardian newspaper’s owner, was appointed by unanimous vote of the league’s shareholders in October. It was hoped that he would help lead the group, home to world-famous teams such as Manchester United and Liverpool FC, through a challenging time as new fans spring up overseas while returns from domestic broadcast rights falter.

To contact the reporters on this story: David Hellier in London at dhellier@bloomberg.net;Thomas Seal in London at tseal@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Aaron Kirchfeld at akirchfeld@bloomberg.net

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