Charlie Methven

Charlie Methven is a public relations consultant, journalist and publisher, who has also been a football club executive, most recently at Sunderland AFC, where he is a part-owner.


Charlie Methven
EducationEton College
Alma materExeter College, Oxford
OccupationPublic relations consultant, journalist and publisher

Early life and education

Methven was brought up largely in rural Oxfordshire and went to Eton College. He went on to read Theology at Exeter College, Oxford.[1]

Career

Journalism

In 1997, he started his career as a journalist for the horseracing paper Sporting Life, and later transferred to The Daily Telegraph, where he went on to edit the Peterborough diary column before being given his own column in 2003. He also wrote features and leaders for The Telegraph, and The Spectator, during this time.[2] In 2002, he was elected the Telegraph Group's ‘Father of the Chapel’ (the term used to denote a Shop Steward of the National Union of Journalists). During a subsequent dispute with management, the Telegraph's NUJ Chapel, led by Methven, went on to pass the first national newspaper strike ballot in over a decade.[3] The dispute was settled afterward, but Methven left The Telegraph to join the London Evening Standard in 2004, as a feature writer.

Publisher

In 2005, in a consortium that included former Daily Telegraph Director Jeremy Deedes, Methven founded a daily horseracing and gambling newspaper titled The Sportsman; it was the UK's first new nationally distributed newspaper since The Independent in 1986.[4] While the paper reached a circulation of over 20,000 copies a day, it ran out of funds in late 2006 and folded.[5]

Public relations

In 2011, he co-founded a communications consultancy called Dragon Associates which has advised clients such as the Kingdom of Bahrain.[6] Other clients included 5 Hertford Street,[7] Tottenham Hotspur, and Marex Spectron In 2017, Spear's Wealth Management Survey rated him among the top-10 public relations consultants in London in their annual rankings.[8]

Football clubs

Oxford United F.C.

A life-long supporter of Oxford United F.C., Methven became a founding committee member of Oxford's supporters' trust, OxVox. In 2011, he became a Trustee of OUFC's Youth and Community Trust, founded supporters group the Yellow Army[9] and also gave marketing and PR advice to the club's then owner Ian Lenagan, until Lenagan sold Oxford in 2014. Methven had launched an attempt to buy the club with subsequent business partner Stewart Donald, but was outbid.[10][11]

Sunderland A.F.C.

In May 2018, Methven arranged for Juan Sartori and Stewart Donald to buy Sunderland AFC from American billionaire Ellis Short. Methven bought 6% of the club and was appointed as its Executive Director.[12] The takeover is featured in Episode 8 of Netflix documentary Sunderland 'Til I Die: A Fresh Start. Prior to SAFC's acquisition by Donald, Sartori, and Methven it had been relegated twice consecutively and was £160 million in debt and losing over £20 million per annum.[13] The club had been expected by many industry experts to be on the brink of administration.[14][15]

Under his marketing guidance, the club achieved the highest-ever season average attendance for the 3rd tier of English football (31,500),[16] the highest single-match attendance for League 1 (46,039 vs Bradford City on Boxing Day 2018)[17][18] and the highest revenues in League 1 history. SAFC also received Football Business’ Marketing Award for season 2018/2019 for the club's ‘Big Seat Change’ initiative and was nominated by the Football Supporters Association for their Best Fan Engagement award.[19][20] However, he also ran into trouble with fan groups on a number of occasions. In a BBC Radio Newcastle interview in September 2018, he described Sunderland fans who chose to watch illegal live streams in pubs adjoining the stadium instead of paying to watch matches as ‘parasites’,[21] a word he subsequently described as "ill-chosen".[22] Over a year later, he was the subject of a leak from a private meeting with fans group leaders at a meeting to clarify what they were concerned might have been a misleading statement made by him to the press. He explained to The Times, who published the leak, that he had "felt exasperated" by the negative reaction to something he regarded as good news and had reacted "intemperately".[23]

Following the leaked account of the private meeting by The Times, Methven said he had already given notice of his resignation from Sunderland's Board, eventually stepping down in December 2019 citing the pressures of business and family life. He explained in a statement that his wife was in the latter stages of pregnancy and that his consultancy clients expected him to be in London more often in 2020. He continued as a shareholder of the club, and as a director of its holding company, Madrox Partners Limited.[24][1]

Sunderland 'Til I Die (Season 2)

The second series of Netflix's fly-on-the-wall documentary Sunderland 'Til Die was released on April 1, 2020. It is believed that the series has received considerable global viewing figures.[25]

The 6 episode series focuses on Methven and business partner Stewart Donald as they attempt to turn around the fortunes of the calamity-stricken fallen giant. Methven's appearances in the show include some of the most memorable scenes[26] – the series opens with him telling Sunderland's staff that the club is “100% f*cked[26] – this was about to become the first ever large club to go properly bust."[25] He goes on to change the style of pre-match music to make it “a bit more Ibiza”,[26] and targets a record attendance for a League One club.[27][18]

References
  1. Johns, Craig (18 May 2018). "Who is Charlie Methven? The public relations expert involved in Stewart Donald's Sunderland takeover". nechronicle.
  2. "RIP Peterborough: By Jove! It's the end of an era". The Independent. 25 February 2003.
  3. "Red socks, pinstripes, fighting the bosses. Who is the Charlie Methven in SAFC takeover?".
  4. "Is new gambling paper on to a winner?". 15 July 2005 – via news.bbc.co.uk.
  5. Twitter, Press Gazette (14 July 2005). "Owners put their cards on table for Sportsman launch".
  6. "Dragon Associates | PR Watch". bahrainwatch.org.
  7. "5 Hertford Street Events". 5 Hertford Street Private Members Club Homepage.
  8. "CHARLIE METHVEN". spearswms.com.
  9. "Yellow Army". oufc.co.uk.
  10. "Consortium led by Charlie Methven launches formal bid for Oxford United". Oxford Mail.
  11. "Post". alovesupreme.
  12. "Charlie Methven – Latest news, transfers, pictures, video, opinion – Chronicle Live". chroniclelive.co.uk.
  13. Edwards, Luke (29 March 2019). "How Sunderland overcame trauma of a double relegation to reconnect with fans and rise from the dead". The Daily Telegraph.
  14. Taylor, Louise (23 April 2018). "Large debts, absent owner, no identity – what next for Sunderland? | Louise Taylor". The Guardian.
  15. Martin, Michael (28 December 2017). "SUNDERLAND FINANCES – NO FUTURE!".
  16. Johns, Craig (26 April 2019). "Sunderland to smash League One average attendance over a season record on Saturday". nechronicle.
  17. "Sunderland 1-0 Bradford City: 46,039 crowd 'rewarded' by League One victory". 26 December 2018 – via bbc.co.uk.
  18. Bird, Simon (26 December 2018). "Sunderland smash attendance record as almost 50,000 fans attend Boxing Day clash". mirror.
  19. Mason, Rob (3 July 2018). "Sunderland's 'pink seat' replacement scheme will make fans feel part of the club – just like I did". nechronicle.
  20. "Big Seat Change recognised". Sunderland Association Football Club. 27 September 2018.
  21. "Sunderland director Charlie Methven hits out at "parasites"". The Northern Echo.
  22. Tomlinson, Andy (28 November 2018). "News: Sunderland Executive Director Charlie Methven clarifies "ill-chosen" parasites comment". Roker Report.
  23. Correspondent, Matt Lawton, Chief Sports Correspondent | Martin Hardy, Northern Sports. "Sunderland director enraged northern fans by claiming they do not understand business". The Times.
  24. Hunter, James (6 December 2019). "Sunderland director Charlie Methven announces his resignation from the board". nechronicle.
  25. Echegaray, Luis Miguel. "'Sunderland 'Til I Die' Season 2: What's New and What Still Works". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  26. "Cutting remarks, making Sunderland 'a bit Ibiza' and his past life as a DJ: Charlie Methven is Sunderland 'Til I Die's big character". www.sunderlandecho.com. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  27. Brown, Oliver (6 April 2020). "Exclusive interview – Sunderland 'Til I Die star Charlie Methven: 'They were paying a consultant £20,000 to move the pot plants'". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
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