Tony Blair has been mentioned as a possible Premier League chairman to replace Richard Scudamore when he steps down before the end of 2018.

Writing in his Daily Mail column, football gossip (the off-field type, not the transfer type) Charles Sale says the former Prime Minister’s name was mentioned at the last club’s meeting.

180919 charles sale tony blair
Daily Mail 19 September 2018

“Football has never seemed one of Blair’s great passions despite his claims to be a Newcastle fan,” writes Sale.

“And even that was subject to ridicule when it was misreported that he had claimed to have watched Jackie Milburn at St James’ Park while sitting in the Gallowgate End. Blair was four and living in Australia when Milburn left the club — and the Gallowgate was all standing at the time.”

Sale, of course, fails to mention the biggest problem with Tony Blair and that is his alleged war crimes.

Along with George W. Bush, Blair misled the British parliament about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, that have still not been found, as a pretext for an invasion that inflicted untold suffering and slaughter on the people of Iraq where the number dead runs to the hundreds of thousands.

“Nothing could be more emphatic than these findings,” Michael Mansfield, QC, said after the release of the Chilcot Inquiry that found Blair had misled parliament. “It was an unlawful war.”

The Inquiry concluded that:

  • The judgements about the severity of the threat posed by Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction – WMD – were presented with a certainty that was not justified.
  • Despite explicit warnings, the consequences of the invasion were underestimated. The planning and preparations for Iraq after Saddam Hussein were wholly inadequate.
  • The Government failed to achieve its stated objectives.

Football, as we know, has different standards of morality than the rest of the world. The ‘fit and proper persons’ test was a joke that didn’t stop criminals from owning football clubs.

But allowing Blair’s name to be mentioned in connection with the role without shutting it down is a step too far, even for football.

As of January 2018, Blair’s net worth was reported at £22.1m.