Top Australian Sports Administrator Snubbed Liverpool’s Chief Executive Offer

Saturday, 1st September, 2012

Australian sports administrator Gillon McLachlan snubbed the chance to join Liverpool as the English club’s chief executive, according to Western Australian newspaper The Sunday Times.

Liverpool currently have Ian Ayre as the club’s managing director, a post to which he was appointed on 22nd March last year.

McLachlan, who serves as the Australian Football League’s chief operating officer, has seen his reputation as an administrator grow of late and word of this appears to have reached Liverpool, who offered him a key role earlier this year.

However, the AFL COO turned down the chance to move to Anfield to work for Liverpool’s owners Fenway Sports Group, as he is settled with his young family in Melbourne and has no plans to uproot them, even for such an attractive post.

Since McLachlan turned down Liverpool’s overtures, Australia’s National Rugby League has come calling for the number two man in the AFL structure.

He is believed to have an offer on the table from the NRL in excess of $1M Australian Dollars per year to take that organisation’s chief executive role.

The revelation that he could have landed in England may suggest that Liverpool’s owners, Fenway Sports Group, are still looking to make changes to the club’s internal structure as they seek to transform the Reds into an off the pitch money-making machine.

It is not known what McLachlan’s exact remit would have been however.

The Australian though will not be joining Liverpool’s American regime.