Peter Kenyon (born 1954 in

Stalybridge Stalybridge () is a town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, it had a population of 26,830. Historic counties of England, Historically divided between Cheshire and Lancashire, it is east o ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

) is a British businessman who has served as the chief executive of English

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

football clubs

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

and Chelsea, where he has been involved in contentious transfer dealings.

Early life

Kenyon was educated in

Tameside Tameside is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England, named after the River Tame, Greater Manchester, River Tame, which flows through it, and includes the towns of Ashton-under-Lyne, Audenshaw, Denton, Greater Manchester, Denton, D ...

at West Hill School and King's School, Macclesfield.

Career

Kenyon was a director and chief executive of sportswear firm Umbro.

Manchester United

In 1997, Kenyon took up the role of deputy chief executive at the club he supported as a boy,

, where he sat on the Board of Directors. He was promoted to chief executive in August 2000 following the departure of Martin Edwards. Kenyon was influential in persuading long-serving manager Alex Ferguson to remain at the club despite Ferguson's original intention to retire in 2002. One of the other notable aspects of Kenyon's time in charge was the fact that the club dismissed their rigid wage structure and spent large sums of money on players such as Juan Sebastián Verón and Rio Ferdinand.

Chelsea

In 2003, Kenyon moved to Chelsea, which was seen as controversial as he had previously proclaimed himself as a lifelong Manchester United supporter. At Chelsea, Kenyon was involved in high-profile incidents, including an attempt to persuade the manager of the England national team Sven-Göran Eriksson to become manager of Chelsea, and the tapping-up of former Arsenal and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

left-back Ashley Cole. On 16 September 2009, Chelsea announced that Kenyon would be leaving his chief executive role at Chelsea at the end of October.

Third-party ownership

On 22 September 2014, an investigation by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' implicated Kenyon and Portuguese superagent Jorge Mendes in breaching

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

regulations regarding third-party ownership and conflict of interest in player representation, buying player rights through companies based in Jersey and Ireland. ''The Guardian'' also published a detailed report showing Kenyon's ex-club Chelsea have invested in third party ownership via Mendes and Kenyon, a practice banned by the

. Chelsea declined to comment on the accusations.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kenyon, Peter English businesspeople Chelsea F.C. non-playing staff Manchester United F.C. directors and chairmen British sports executives and administrators People from Stalybridge Sportspeople from Tameside (district) 1954 births Living people