Premier League name Richard Masters as permanent chief executive

The Premier League have named Richard Masters as chief executive on a permanent basis following their decision to dispense with David Pemsel last week.

Pemsel was forced to resign from the Premier League before he had started due to anger felt by many clubs over the disclosure of inappropriate text messages sent to a former colleague, with their strong feelings first reported by Sportsmail.

The Premier League have been searching for a new chief executive for almost 18 months since executive chairman Richard Scudamore announced he was standing down and their bungled recruitment process has been a source of embarrassment to the clubs, with TV executives Susannah Dinnage and Tim Davie both turning the job down before Pemsel was forced to stand aside.

The League have been canvassing the opinion of the clubs this week and a number are understood to have told them to give the job to Masters, who has been acting as interim chief executive for the last year and is widely regarded as having done a good job in tough circumstances.

Masters has been with the Premier League for 13 years, having previously worked at the EFL and ECB, and is seen as a safe pair of hands at a potentially difficult time for the organisation.

Negotiations with broadcasters over the next television contract are due to start in February so a quick appointment is viewed as essential.

The other option for the Premier League is to start a new recruitment process from scratch, in which case they may look to the United States for candidates in the hope of attracting an executive well-placed to sell their rights to streaming services such as Amazon Prime, Netflix and Facebook.