UP298 Sir Martin Broughton

Sir Martin Broughton sold Liverpool and nearly bought Chelsea. As chair of the former he was tasked with moving the club out of the hands of previous owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett and in to its current ownership group, Fenway Sports Group. More recently, Broughton put together a consortium to bid for Chelsea, when the club came to market following the forced sale by Roman Abramovich.So there are very few people who have a more informed view on the value of a Premier League football club than Sir Martin Broughton, and although he doesn't say this himself, he'd be a good pick as an independent regulator for football.  Sport features heavily in a corporate career that includes chairmanship of British Airways and British American Tobacco, putting Broughton a close up view of how London 2012 Olympics, Formula One, horse racing and plenty of other sports really work. He's written a book - the link is here - and it's both a fascinating insight in to the sports business, and also a good cause, with all proceeds going to the Retraining of Racehorses charity.  There's a deeper analysis of the issues raised in this podcast to be found in this week's Unofficial Partner Newsletter.Link here Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.