New Bristol City CEO Phil Alexander has revealed that Richard Scudamore is "very much involved" with the decision-making at the Robins, as Bristol Live understands the former Premier League chief executive holds an advisory role with the club.
Lifelong City fan Scudamore has been considered for a permanent position at Ashton Gate after stepping down from his role leading the Premier League in 2018 and after Mark Ashton’s departure in 2021, he was a popular choice among supporters to take over.
However, Scudamore never applied, with Richard Gould then appointed, and while he retained a sense of professional distance from the Robins in a formal sense, has continued to act on a consultancy basis to the hierarchy in BS3.
Having served as Crystal Palace chief executive for 26 years, Alexander, who succeeded Gould at the end of January, has known Scudamore for more than two decades and discussed the club with him before taking the job. For Alexander, Scudamore acts as an external expert to bounce ideas off and seek counsel over various aspects of football governance.
“I was at Crystal Palace for 26 years - a long time at one club - although it felt like different clubs over a period of different ownership groups at the same,” Alexander told Robins TV in his first interview.
“I had a great time at Crystal Palace, enjoyed it, some fantastic people but the time was right for me to step down from my role and since then I’ve been doing a bit more for Palace in a consultancy role and for Wycombe Wanderers, which I’ve enjoyed.
“The opportunity came up for City and it just sounded like a great opportunity, I followed up the conversations with some visits here and met with both Gavin (Marshall, director of sport at Pula and former Bristol Sport chief financial officer) initially, Richard Scudamore - who’s very much involved here as well - and bought very quickly into the dream and the ambitions of Steve, Maggie and Jon Lansdown into trying to make Bristol into a sporting hub.
“You can see the investment that’s gone in, it’s really very impressive. For me, it felt like a really good challenge, not too far away from where I live, it was something I bought into very quickly and here I am.
“You look at the stadium, the investments that have gone into the stadium, it’s a superb facility and, of course, the training ground is Premier League-ready.
“Facilities for the players, they have everything they need in terms of medical assistance, support, nutrition, practice facilities - everything is superb. It’s as good as any Premier League club, we just need to get up the table and get into those play-off positions, so that’s the ambition.”
Scudamore was Premier League chief executive for 19 years, leading the league through the boom period of foreign investment in the 2000s and billion-pound TV deals that are now commonplace.
In an interview with ITV last year, he claimed his Bristolian roots, having grown up in Soundwell, to the east of the city, meant he maintained an important sense of geographical neutrality when dealing with all the top-flight clubs. Scudamore also revealed his frustration that City have been unable to reach the top-flight since the inception of the Premier League in 1992.
“Bristol City are the biggest team from the biggest city that’s never been in and so of course on one level, it’s a source of absolute frustration,” he said. “But I know it’s also a source of frustration to our owner and benefactor Steve who nobody, no Bristol City fan can have any criticism of the way he has run that club.
“We got to the play-offs. We were only a Dean Windass overhead kick from the Premier League at that point and so we can get close again.”
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