PL to weigh-up reward for outgoing chief exec

Scudamore may receive £5m with 20 top clubs contributing £250,000 each

LONDON: The English Premier League is set to consider a controversial plan to reward outgoing chief executive Richard Scudamore with a 'golden goodbye' of some £5 million at a meeting.

News that Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck, who also chairs the Premier League's audit and remuneration committee, had proposed each of English football's 20 top-flight clubs contribute some £250,000 each broke in a report by the Daily Mail newspaper on Tuesday.

This was the same day the league announced that television executive Susanna Dinnage had been chosen as Scudamore's successor.

But the comparatively rare appointment of a woman to a major position in British sport, was soon overshadowed by the furore regarding Buck's proposal, with Scudamore and league officials understood to have had no knowledge of the plan until they saw the media reports.

News of Buck's plan, which has been said to have embarrassed Scudamore, provoked a furious reaction with Henry Winter, the football correspondent of The Times, labelling it "obscene".

"Yes, he (Scudamore) has made fortunes for owners with his TV rights Midas touch but it's a PR (public relations) disaster, 2 fingers to fleeced fans & a green light for agents to demand bigger wages for players & bigger fees for themselves," Winter also tweeted.

The furore scuppered any hope of an agreement being reached on Tuesday, with a decision now seemingly postponed for a meeting league shareholders in London on Thursday.

But Cardiff chief executive Ken Choo told the BBC his club were willing to contribute towards Scudamore's bonus payment.

"He has moved the Premier League on to another level, and he has allowed someone new (Dinnage) to take it further now — he deserves the recognition," said Choo.

Scudamore has reportedly earned more than £26 million since 1999.

Other awkward items on Thursday's agenda involve the treatment of overseas players following Britain's planned exit from the European Union in March 2019.

Under current regulations, any player from an EU or European Economic Area country is free to work in Britain, with players from elsewhere requiring work permits.