(Football news) Premier League chairman Gary Hoffman is close to finalising his exit, having taken up the post 18 months ago after facing backlash for the Newcastle United takeover. An announcement could be made imminently after weeks of unrest for allowing the £305m purchase of Newcastle United by a Saudi led consortium.

Despite the pandemic, the Premier League’s finances have never looked better with the sale of its US television rights for record sums of money. However, some clubs have criticised Hoffman for not keeping them closely informed about the progress of Newcastle’s negotiations and that the deal should have been blocked due to the Saudi regime’s human rights record. However, these complaints were swiftly put to an end by the Premier League as they are bound by confidentiality obligations during their discussions with the consortium.

The 20 Premier League clubs held a meeting last month to vote on a ban related-party transactions, thereby ensuring Newcastle could not sign sponsorship deals with the Saudi state or the Public Investment Fund (PIF), a similar practice that Manchester City employed by renaming their stadium ‘Etihad Stadium’ despite their owner Sheikh Mansour being linked to the airline company. Ironically, only Manchester City abstained from voting while Newcastle opposed the motion.

Gary Hoffman has been serving as a chair of the Football Foundation and took on the chairmanship of the Premier League in June 2020. He was also overseeing the ‘Project Big Picture’, an initiative by Liverpool and Manchester United to reduce the Premier League to 18 teams in order to redirect the funds of top flight English football. Hoffman was also responsible for holding the six Premier League clubs accountable for their  involvement in the European Super League and the removal of their executives from Premier League’s sub-committees.

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