Football: Leaver will confront the dissidents
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Your support makes all the difference.PETER LEAVER, the Premier League's chief executive, will test the strength of his support after calling for a meeting yesterday following signs of dissent over his appointments of the former BSkyB executives, Sam Chisholm and David Chance, as media advisers.
Leaver, who has been in his position for 17 months, is said to be in the mood to resign unless there is a powerful expression of faith shown in him by the Premiership's governing body of 20 club chairmen when they meet for the second time in eight days, in London on Thursday.
The barrister and former deputy High Court judge made the unilateral decision to take the pair on board because of their expert knowledge which is certain to come in useful in negotiations for a new televised deal, due to take place in 2001.
Leaver believes that making the appointments without having to seek full consultation with the clubs is within the remit of his job, just as it was to fight off the threat of a breakaway European Super League as proposed by Media Partners in the summer.
But six of the member clubs - believed to be Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Newcastle United, Leeds United and Wimbledon - are said to have expressed reservations about salary inducements offered to Chisholm and Chance.
And after a confrontation with the six, who demanded the full details of the appointments after a meeting of the chairmen last Thursday, Leaver has felt obliged to calm the feud by calling another meeting.
He has refused to say how much Chisholm will be paid, but the six clubs were given the information last week provided they signed a confidentiality agreement.
Speculation puts the figure in excess of pounds 1m, although it is also claimed that the pay award will be linked to the size of the television deal he can negotiate.
BSkyB's present domination of that particular marketplace is sure to make them front-runners and the inside knowledge that Chisholm and Chance must have of their former employers' made them, in Leaver's eyes, prime candidates to head the Premier League negotiating team.
Some clubs suspect are beginning to suspect a "Tottenham bureaucracy" link between Leaver and Chisholm. Leaver is a former Spurs director and Chisholm was appointed to the Tottenham board in the summer - a post he resigned just before last Thursday's meeting of the Premier League chairmen in order to defuse any possible allegations of a conflict of interest in his new appointment.
It has been suggested that Thursday's meeting will be about Leaver's behaviour, but a source close to him insists that it is more about his will to continue in the job if his power to make decisions seems likely to be undermined.
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