A former AFL, NRL and A-League executive has landed one of the most high-profile and challenging off-field jobs in the English Premier League after being appointed as a buffer between Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy and the club’s football department.
Scott Munn, who is best known for his time as chief executive of A-League side Melbourne City, was announced as Spurs’ new chief football officer late on Friday night (AEST). It will be his first role in European football.
It is an enormous opportunity for Munn, who has been the City Football Group’s chief executive officer in China for the past four years after leaving his post with Melbourne City, where he had been working since the club was founded as Melbourne Heart in 2009 and later rebranded following the CFG buyout.
Munn will have to navigate a tempestuous environment in north London, where Spurs are fifth on the Premier League table, looking unlikely to qualify for next season’s UEFA Champions League, and without a full-time manager after the sacking of Antonio Conte, who last month became the 11th head coach hired and fired during Levy’s dicey two-decade tenure as chairman.
Conte launched into his players after they gave up a two-goal lead in a 3-3 draw with Southampton on March 19, calling them “selfish” and heartless. He also criticised the club’s culture and appeared to suggest that Levy, who has a long-held reputation for becoming too involved with day-to-day football to the frustration of previous managers and sporting directors, was a big part of the problem.
Spurs said in a statement that the appointment of Munn, who will join the club’s board and take charge of all footballing departments, comes amid an “ongoing review over the past six months of all of our footballing activities”.
“Scott has a unique and broad experience of running sporting organisations at the highest level and will take responsibility for the leadership and management of our football activities to instil best practice both on and off the pitch,” Levy said.
Few Aussie executives have scaled such heights in the European club game as Munn, who began his sports management career with the organising committee for the Sydney 2000 Olympics and then joined the NRL in a commercial role.
Munn later moved to the AFL and spearheaded the league’s expansion efforts into the Gold Coast, serving as “GC17” project general manager but departing prior to the Suns’ first game in 2011 to move into soccer.
In an interview with this masthead three years ago, Munn recalled Melbourne Heart’s difficult early days in the A-League and the uncertainty of the club’s takeover by the City Football Group, which has since become a powerful entity within Australian soccer and a proven conduit of success for players, coaches and executives.
“I expected everyone would lose their jobs, me included,” he said. “We were called into Crown [Casino], we were meeting Simon Pearce [Emirates Marketing Project’s vice chairman], Ferran Soriano [City’s CEO] and Brian Marwood [now CFG’s managing director, global football].
“We got up there, and they asked us one question each, ‘What keeps you awake at night?’
“The financial controller, Paul Jeffery, said, ‘I’ve got no cash’. They said we will be put money in the bank tomorrow. [John Didulica, Heart’s football director] said, ‘We have finished second last, we have sold all our best players’. They said no problems, we turn football clubs around, we will fix the list.
“Brad Rowse [now Melbourne City’s CEO] said, ‘Westpac have just announced they are reducing their sponsorship and so we don’t have a major sponsor.’ They said, ‘No problems, we think we can talk to Nike and Etihad’.
“They then turned to me and I said, ‘If you can fix those problems, I don’t actually have any problems at all’.”
Munn was at the helm of Melbourne City for their maiden Australia Cup triumph in 2016 and hat-trick of women’s grand final wins between 2016-18 before moving to China, where CFG is minority owner of Sichuan Jiuniu in the tier below the Chinese Super League.
Munn, who has been contacted for comment, may have a key role to play in the search for Tottenham’s next full-time coach. Ange Postecoglou has been mentioned as a possible candidate, and the involvement of another Australian at Spurs – let alone his experience within the CFG network at Yokohama F. Marinos – will do little to douse speculation that the former Socceroos boss could make an imminent move to the Premier League, although his recent comments suggest he wants to have at least one more crack at the UEFA Champions League with Celtic next season.
Spurs could also be looking for another director of football. Incumbent Fabio Paratici is appealing against a worldwide ban on his involvement in football by FIFA for alleged financial mismanagement at his previous employers, Juventus.
